GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – The No. 16 Colorado Mesa men's wrestling team needed every weight to contribute and they got just that in a 23-21 win over the visiting CSU Pueblo ThunderWolves on Thursday (Jan. 27) evening in the seventh-annual Bank of Colorado Battle in Brownson.
 
The contributions could have been anything including losing by just a decision instead of bonus points. And they got just that, as the two teams split the ten bouts but all five of the Mavericks wins went for bonus points while only two were for bonus points for the Pack.
 
The night started off with a pair of major decision victories at 125 pounds and 133 pounds to push the Mavericks to the early 8-0 lead in the dual. No. 5 ranked Dawson Collins, wrestling for the first time in over a month, came away with a 14-6 win over Parker McBride while No. 7 ranked Collin Metzgar continued his winning ways with a 14-1 win over Devin Lueck.
 
CSU Pueblo made tons of noise in the next four bouts winning each with two coming by decision and two by pin. In the 141-pound bout, Erik Contreras was leading 8-6 with roughly 20 seconds left but gave up a takedown and a two-point nearfall in the waning seconds, surrendering the bout.
 
Gavin Melendez defeated Nick Gallegos 2-1 at 149 pounds then back-to-back pins at 157 pounds and 165 pounds pushed the CSU Pueblo lead to 18-8 after six bouts. At 157 pounds, Ryan Wheeler led 6-3 in the match but was pinned at the 6:20 mark of the bout.
 
It was the Mavericks turn to go on a run through their 'Murder's Row' portion of the lineup and the trio did just that. Seth Latham started it off with a first period technical fall of Remington Winmill at 174 pounds followed by a pin of Dominic Robles by Nolan Krone in the first period at 184 pounds. The run was capped off by a 15-3 major decision victory by No. 8 Donnie Negus at 197 pounds. That made the dual score 23-18 in favor of the Mavericks.
 
That brought the final bout of the night between 197-pound backup Kash Anderson of the Mavericks and oft-ranked Gavin Nye of CSU Pueblo. Anderson, giving up nearly 90 pounds in the bout, needed to just not get pinned in the final bout for Colorado Mesa to secure the win. Anderson nearly came away with a victory over Nye but the ThunderWolf secured a win only by the riding point in the bout for the 11-10 win.
 
The Mavericks improved to 7-2 on the season and 2-0 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. They also improved to 5-2 in Bank of Colorado Battle in Brownson duals.
 
Colorado Mesa will be back in action in a Sunday matinee as they take on #21 Colorado School of Mines at 3pm in Brownson Arena.
 
Bout-by-Bout Results
125 – #5 Dawson Collins (CMU) maj. dec. Parker McBride, 14-6
133 – #7 Collin Metzgar (CMU) maj. dec. Devin Lueck, 14-1
141 – Cyruss Meeks (PACK) dec. Erik Contreras, 10-8
149 – Gavin Melendez (PACK) dec. Nick Gallegos, 2-1
157 – Justin Davis (PACK) pins Ryan Wheeler, 6:20
165 – Ruben Garcia (PACK) pins Tanner Tsinigine, 4:28
174 – Seth Latham (CMU) tech falls Remington Winmill, 16-0 (2:39)
184 – Nolan Krone (CMU) pins Dominic Robles, 2:56
197 – #8 Donnie Negus (CMU) maj. dec. Ben Gould, 15-3
285 – Gavin Nye (PACK) dec. Kash Anderson, 11-10