GOLDEN, Colo. – The Colorado Mesa men's wrestling team sent a small contingent of wrestlers to the Colorado School of Mines Rookie Open on Sunday (Nov. 6) afternoon. The Mavericks came away with four wrestlers who placed in the top six of their respective weight in the season opening tournament for some of the regional school's younger wrestlers.
 
The brackets for the tournament laid out so that those who made the semifinals were guaranteed a top four finish. If you dropped a match prior to the semifinals, the best you could place was fifth.
 
Redshirt freshman Tanner Baumgartner was the highest placing Maverick as he finished third at 174 pounds. Baumgartner reached the semifinals after winning his first match 3-2 followed by a 10-3 win over Lawson Hayman of Western Colorado.
 
He fell 7-4 in his semifinal bout to Gavin Gross of Air Force. He came back to win the third-place match with a pin of Josh Coon from Adams State at the 6:38 mark of the bout.
 
Redshirt freshman Oran Huff wound up fourth at 133 pounds after going 2-2 on Sunday. The Lyons, Colo. native won his first two matches by scores of 3-2 and 8-4 before falling 8-0 in the semis to Joe Fernau of Air Force. Huff fell in the third place match to Logan Attisano of Air Force.
 
Redshirt freshman Braden Baumgartner finished fifth at 197 pounds. Baumgartner dropped his opening match of the tournament to the eventual champion and wound up winning his next four matches to claim fifth. One match was won by technical fall and another by way of fall.
 
Redshirt freshman Jack Finnegan placed sixth at 149 pounds after going 5-1 in the tournament. Finnegan dropped his first bout of the tournament and came all the way back through to finish sixth. He couldn't wrestle in the fifth-place bout as he reached his daily match limit of six.
 
The Mavericks will open the dual portion of the schedule next weekend as they take on San Francisco State in a RMAC bout. They will also wrestle against future NCAA Division II member Menlo prior to their dual with the Gators.