The term "fighting with family" looked a little bit different in the Gallegos household where Colorado Mesa University wrestlers, Marissa and Nick Gallegos grew up in Denver.
 
If you have siblings, you probably wrestled around with them growing up and tried to see who was the stronger brother or sister. It created a competitive household and fun sibling dynamic. 
 
Now think about a family, where all seven children of are wrestlers.
 
Marissa and Nick and the oldest pair of the seven and are only separated by two years. Nick began wrestling at the age of four while Marissa waited until she was in the sixth grade to start her career on the mat.  However, she was still beating up on the other four younger brothers.
 
"My dad used to joke around and have us all wrestle, and I didn't even wrestle competitively at the time because I was a gymnast. I was a little bit bigger before puberty and I would beat them up," Marissa said. "I joined judo before wrestling and [Nick]'s wrestling coach had a daughter who wrestled and wanted to me use my judo experience with wrestling so that's how I started."
 
Marissa would wrestle boys all throughout middle school and the first part of high school before high school girls' wrestling became sanctioned in Colorado. From there, she went on to become a High School All-American and to win a Colorado State Championship for Jefferson High School.
 
In her collegiate career that began back in 2018, Marissa helped establish Colorado Mesa as one of the top programs in the entire country. After redshirting her freshman year, she has gone on to place second and third at the National Championships and be named as an all-American in back-to-back seasons. On top of that, Marissa qualified for the 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials, held last summer in Fort Worth, Texas.
 
Marissa has overcome multiple shoulder surgeries, along with a few other injuries, and currently is ranked as one of the best 123-pound wrestlers in the entire country with her 20-1 record.  She was named as the NWCA Co-Wrestler of the Month for February and is ranked second amongst all NCAA wrestlers for her weight class after claiming the Southwest Regional Qualifier Tournament last weekend.
 
"I think the biggest thing that has allowed me to continue to grow is just being grateful for the opportunity to wrestle and not putting so much expectations on myself," Marissa said. "You should just have fun and enjoy the process while you're a student."
 
Nick followed his sister to Grand Junction after a successful high school career at Jefferson. In his two years at CMU, he has been a part of back-to-back Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference championship runs and is looking to compete in his second regional tournament this weekend
 
"I came here not knowing what to expect," Nick said. "The first semester hit me pretty hard but I'm on top of everything now.  Marissa and I are living together and it's been great. We're both getting better."
 
Both siblings watch every one of each other's matches and are constantly asking and giving advice.
 
"I ask him for wrestling advice more often than he does," Marissa said about her brother. "I'm always a student of the sport and I know my brother has wrestled longer than I have."
 
On top of having each other having an eye on their matches, the family back home— remember there are five other wrestling siblings— always let Marissa and Nick know what they thought of their older brother and sister's competitions.
 
"We're always on each other's backs," Nick said. "Even after a match we'll get a paragraph from all of our siblings. 'You did this right… You did that right…  You look good…  How's school going?'
 
"We always have each other's backs in school, wrestling and we know how to carry it outside of wrestling too."
 
When one grows up in a family like that, where wrestling and family play such a pivotal part of an upbringing, having a sibling with you in college continues to be a sense of comfort for both Marissa and Nick.
 
"I don't feel like I need to go home as much, because I have a part of home with me," Marissa said. "Because of our narrow age gap, I feel like we we're the closet of our siblings."