MARSHALL, Mo. – The No. 7 Colorado Mesa women's wrestling team completed day one of the Missouri Valley Open late on Friday (Nov. 22) evening with 10 wrestlers still alive for a spot on the podium and a top-8 finish in their respective weight classes.
 
The Missouri Valley Open is considered the largest collegiate women's wrestling tournament in the United States with nearly 70 teams competing and over 700 wrestlers in the field.
 
The Mavericks have one wrestler guaranteed a spot in the top-6 at 160 pounds with freshman Gretchen Donally reaching the semifinals at the weight class. The Ballantine, Mont. native went 5-0 on the day with four technical falls and a pin of Larissa Gallo, an unattached wrestler from North Central College, at 1:37 to earn the berth into the semifinals.
 
Donally earned a spot in the quarterfinals after a 12-2 technical fall win over Amelia Frounfelter of the University of Saint Mary before her win in the quarters. She will now face Sierra Mefford of Cumberlands for a spot in the finals as she defeated Athena Wilden of William Jewell in the quarters with a pin of her own.
 
Fellow Maverick Kim Carlin is also still alive at 160 pounds as she will need to win three matches tomorrow to earn a spot on the podium. Carlin fell to Mefford in the round of 16 by pin after earning two pins of her own to reach that spot in the tournament. Her quickest pin came against Claire Avery of Campbellsville that came at 3:57.
 
Freshman Maddison Heinzer reached the quarterfinals of the 103-pound weight class before falling to Gabriele Telesco from McKendree by a technical fall 10-0. Heinzer had a quick 39 second pin in her first match before an 11-0 tech fall win over Arianna Ortiz of Fort Hays State led to her matchup with Telesco.
 
Heinzer now awaits the winner of Central Methodist's Vivian Mariscal and Avila's Alexis Hatfield for a spot on the 103-pound podium.
 
Freshman Sophia Cornish took a similar path as her teammate Heinzer as she reached the quarterfinals of 110-pounds before falling to Avery Ashley of Oklahoma City by pin at 2:01. Cornish earned a 10-0 technical fall over Reagan Thomas of Lindsay Wilson after an 8-0 win over Alexys Jacquez of Saint Mary.
 
The Mission Viejo, Calif. will face the winner of Sereena Baca of Quincy and Audrina Houston of Avila for a top-8 finish.
 
117-pound freshman Jojo McDaniel took a little bit longer route to stay alive in her first Missouri Valley Open. After a 10-0 technical fall win, the Orting, Wash. native took a 12-2 technical fall loss to Flavia Nagatani of Grandview Wrestling Club to drop down into the consolation bracket.
 
McDaniel rattled off a pair of pins followed by a 10-0 tech fall win over Central Methodist's Ryleigh Page to close out day one. She will now face Kailyn Younger of Baker to open tomorrow but will need two wins to finish on the podium.
 
Junior Hania Halverson competed in one of the largest weight classes with a 128-man bracket at 131 pounds. The Kalispell, Mont. native reached the round of 16 before falling to Colorado native Caydin Condit of Lindenwood by fall. She earned a decision victory over Brooke Zejda of Texas Woman's before a first period pin of Asia Fowler of Cumberlands to reach the round of 16.
 
Halverson will now need three wins to reach the podium at the weight and will open the day with a matchup against Jill High of York.
 
The dynamic duo of Erica Smith and Celina Cooke took the long way as both lost matches early in the day of a 128-man bracket at 145 pounds. But, both are still alive after ripping off wins to stay alive. Both will need to win three matches to make the podium but one for sure will not make it as they are scheduled to face each other if the each win their first match of the day.
 
Smith lost her first match before winning four consecutive matches with each coming as a different result which included a forfeit, pin, decision and technical fall. She will open tomorrow with a bout against Eduarda Batista Rodriguez of McKendree.
 
Cooke won three straight that included two pins and technical fall but will now face Mina Himmel of Central Methodist to continue the journey through the consolation bracket.
 
Freshman Alison Evans is still alive at 180 pounds after a solid day. Evans, like most of her teammates, reached the quarterfinals of her weight before falling to top-seeded India Page of Lindsay Wilson by an 11-0 technical fall. Evans won her first two matches of the day by technical fall over opponents from Central Methodist and McKendree.

Evans now awaits the winner of Kaley Rice of Texas Wesleyan and Karla Martinez of Friends for a spot on the podium.
 
Jayleen Sekona reached the quarterfinals at 207-pounds before suffering her first loss of the season to a familiar foe in Katja Osteen of Iowa by an 11-1 technical fall. Osteen and Sekona have met several times in the past two seasons as Osteen used to compete for Simon Fraser.
 
The Anchorage, Alaska native opened the tournament with a 12-1 technical fall win over an opponent from Chadron State before a 10-4 decision win over Alyssa Pinkston of Lindsay Wilson. She picked up a 5-0 decision win over Leilani Sanchez of Wayland Baptist to reach the quarters.
 
Sekona now awaits the winner of Samantha Calkins of Iowa and Faith Wooley of Wayland Baptist for a spot in the top-8 of one of the deepest weights in the tournament.
 
Wrestling is scheduled to commence at 8am (MT) tomorrow morning.