GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University women's wrestling team will begin its eighth and historic season with a jam-packed weekend of action in Brownson Arena, hosting a Saturday evening tri-dual and the Maverick Open throughout the day on Sunday.
On Saturday, the Mavs will take on Snow (Utah) College in an exhibition match-up before hosting Texas Woman's University in their Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference opener.
The two visiting teams will begin the tri-dual at 5 p.m. Action will then continue on a rolling schedule with the Mavs facing the Snow Badgers from Ephraim, Utah at approximately 6 p.m. before taking on the Pioneers from Denton, Texas at approximately 7 p.m. in the premiere match-up of the evening.
Sunday's tournament will begin at 9 a.m. with action on three mats throughout the day. An estimated 175 wrestlers from ten teams plus a handful of unattached wrestlers are expected to compete.
Non-stop Action is slated to run until approximately 4 p.m.
Tickets
Separate tickets for both days can be purchased through
www.cmumavericks.com/tickets.
Saturday's ticket will also include admission to the
Maverick men's team's tri-dual with Colorado Northwestern Community College and Northeastern Junior College, which will begin at Noon.
RMAC Network
Both days of the weekend will both be streamed on the RMAC Network, which can be accessed with a subscription to the service (more information below).
All three legs of Saturday's tri-dual will be on the same stream with Associate A.D./Communications Dave Jahnke and Sports Information Assistant Chris Day providing the commentary throughout the evening.
Separate and simple streams, with no commentary or scorebug, for each mat of Sunday's tournament will also be available on the RMAC Network. A single purchase will give viewers access to all three mats.
Follow the action
Live scoring of the Mavericks' duals on Saturday night can be found on TrackWrestling.com at the specific links below.
The link for the Snow vs. Texas Woman's match-up will be added to the
Maverick schedule page a few minutes before the dual.
Results and mat assignments for
Sunday's tournament can be found here.
RMAC Network News
The RMAC Network has moved to a pay-pre-view model for the 2025-26 season. This season, all RMAC athletic events broadcast by its 15 full-member institutions and associate members will only be available for purchase via a single-game pass or a monthly or annual subscription. Revenue generated by the network will be redistributed to the league's membership to enhance their programs.
RMAC fans can purchase monthly and annual subscriptions that will provide them with access to all regular-season, championship, and archived broadcasts on the RMAC Network. A monthly subscription costs $25, and an annual subscription costs $130. Single-game passes are available for $10, which grants access to a single game for 24 hours.
Additionally, a discounted annual subscription price will be available to students, faculty, and staff of each member institution throughout the year. Purchasing options and pricing for individual RMAC Championships will be announced closer to each event.
National Rankings
The Mavericks will begin the season
ranked sixth in the preseason edition of the National Wrestling Coaches Association's NCAA Women's Coaches Poll. They have 42 points in the Tournament Power Index with six wrestlers ranked inside the top ten of their respective weight class.
The Mavericks' list is led by second-ranked
Lorianna Piestewa at 124 pounds. The sophomore took third at last year's national championships and was the Mavs' lone all-American in 2025.
The Mavs' other ranked wrestlers include
Mia Zuniga, fourth at 103 pounds,
Jayleen Sekona, fourth 207 pounds,
Bella Morales, fifth at 110 pounds,
Gretchen Donally, seventh at 145 pounds and JoJo McDaniel, tenth at 117 pounds.
Sekona is a 3-time all-American and went 14-1 last year before missing the second half of the season due to injury.
Zuniga is a transfer from King (Tenn.) University. She finished 24-13 last year and finished eighth at last year's national tournament.
Donally and Morales are also returning national qualifiers, who both went 2-2 at last year's national tournament.
Probable Lineup
Here is a look at the Mavericks' probable lineup for Saturday's duals as provided by Maverick Head Coach
Travis Mercado, who will likely split starts in the two match-ups.
103- #4
Mia Zuniga or
Kinlee Brandley
110-
Adriana Gomez or #5
Bella Morales
117-
Sophia Cornish or #10
Jojo McDaniel
124- #2
Lorianna Piestewa or
Brooke McCurley
131 –
Hania Halverson or
Thalia Vogelsang
138-
Keyla Ajoleza or
Mollie Dare
145- #7
Gretchen Donally
160 –
Celina Preston or
Taylor Colangelo
180 –
Maggie Smith or
Kimberly Carlin
207 – #4
Jayleen Sekona
A majority of the Mavs' full roster is expected to wrestle in Sunday's tournament.
RMAC Battle Looming
The Mavericks were picked second in a tight RMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll, picking up two first place and two second place votes in the balloting of the conference's five head coaches, who ranked their opposition without voting for their own squad.
The Mavericks tallied 14 points in the poll, just one shy of Simon Fraser, which picked up three first place votes and one second place vote to top the poll with 15 points.
Simon Fraser has won the official RMAC regular season championship in each of the past two years thanks to narrow dual meet win over the Mavs.
However, the Mavericks won the inaugural RMAC Tournament title, dominating the field with five champions and nine finalists in 2025, to finish ahead of the Red Leafs and the rest of the 5-team field.
CMU also had six individual championships in 2024 to win an unofficial team title although no official team scores were kept at the inaugural conference championship.
The Mavs and Red Leafs, who are not surprisingly not ranked in the national rankings, will face off in this year's dual on Dec. 17 as part of the Desert Duals in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Home Mat Dominance
The Mavericks are 13-1 all-time in home duals and have won 13 consecutive times inside Brownson Arena. The Mavs' only home dual loss came on Oct. 27, 2018, the very first day of the program's history to then NAIA No. 1 Wayland Baptist.
Preseason Honors
In conjunction with the RMAC poll, the conference also announced its' Preseason All-RMAC team, made up of the highest returning finisher in each weight class from last year's RMAC Championships.
The Mavs had a league-high five selections in sophomores
Sophia Cornish (110 pounds), JoJo McDaniel (117) and
Lorianna Piestewa (124) as well as seniors
Hania Halverson (131) and
Celina Preston (145). McDaniel, last year's RMAC Freshman of the Year, Piestewa and Halverson all won RMAC titles while Cornish and Preston both took second in their respective weight classes.
An historic year
The NCAA will sponsor a championship in the sport of women's wrestling for the first time in 2025-26. The collegiate championship, featuring teams from all three divisions of the NCAA, will be held on Mar. 7-8, 2026 in Coralville, Iowa.
A total of 18 wrestlers in each of the ten weight classes will qualify through one of six NCAA regional tournaments on the weekend of Feb. 21-22. The Mavericks will wrestle out the Region VI tournament, which will be hosted by Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri.
Only three wrestlers from each weight class at each regional will advance to the national tournament.
Another notable change is that teams will only be allowed to send one wrestler in each weight class to the regional.
The Region VI field includes 18 teams from around the Western half of the United States plus the lone Canadian team in the NCAA— Simon Fraser.
All five RMAC teams are part of the region along with Fort Hays State (Kan.), Lindenwood (Mo.), Linfield (Ore.), Lyon (Ark.) McKendree (Ill.), McMurray (Texas), Minot State (N.D.), Pacific (Ore.), Schreiner (Texas), Sioux Falls (S.D.), Vanguard (Calif.), Westminster (Mo.) and William Jewell (Mo.).
About the Badgers
The Snow Badgers took fourth at last year's NJCAA National Championships, their highest finish in the 3-year history of the program, based out of Ephriam, Utah. The Badgers also crowned nine all-Americans, including two new Mavs in
Rachel Jones and
Kinlee Brandley, who finished second and sixth, respectively.
Ross Taylor is entering his fourth season as the Badgers' head coach.
About the Pioneers
The Pioneers are also entering their fourth year and went 4-6 in duals last year while finishing 2-2 in RMAC contests to take third in the conference standings. They then finished fourth at the RMAC Championships and had three medalists in Brooke Zejda, Poorna Babu and Jemariah Ferguson.
Babu, who took third at 130 pounds, then went on to finish fourth at the NCWWC Regional that the Pioneers hosted in Denton, Texas to earn the team's lone spot in the national tournament. Babu then went 2-2 at the national tournament and returns to help lead Randi Miller's squad as a senior this season.
This year's squad has been picked fourth in the RMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll.
Series Histories
The Mavericks are 2-0 against Snow in previous duals, defeating the Badgers, 40-7 in 2022 and 43-2 in 2023.
The Mavs are 4-0 all-time against the TWU Pioneers and won last year's dual in Texas, 41-6. TWU last dueled the Mavs in Grand Junction on Nov. 4, 2022, falling 34-14 in their first year.
Tournament Info
Sunday's open tournament field will include all three teams involved in Saturday's dual along with other in-region squads from Adams State and Fort Hays State. Arizona Christian from the NAIA will also have a contingent while Fort Hays Tech and Trinidad State will join Snow in the NJCAA representation. The UNLV and Utah Tech Club teams will also be in attendance along with several unattached wrestlers.
A majority of the Maverick roster is expected to compete in the various brackets. Wrestling will begin at 9 a.m. and go throughout the day to determine six placers in each.
Colorado Mesa turns 100
The CMU Century Celebration stands as the cornerstone of Colorado Mesa University's year-long centennial celebration. This ambitious initiative unites our community in honoring a rich heritage while boldly envisioning the next hundred years of academic excellence.
Led by the Steering Committee and six specialized sub-committees, we're orchestrating a transformative experience that will resonate through generations. Each committee brings unique expertise to create an unforgettable commemoration of our past, present and future.
To learn more about Colorado Mesa's 100-year celebration, visit
cmucentury.com.
Up Next
The Mavericks will remain at home but will have nearly two weeks off of competition before hosting their annual Fall Brawl, which will include a tri-dual against the University of Providence (Mont.) and Vanguard (Calif.) on Saturday, Nov. 15. Action will begin at 5 p.m. that night with the Mavs taking to the mat at approximately 6 p.m.
