GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University women's wrestling team, now ranked fifth in the country, will wrap up an early season homestand hosting visiting teams from California and Montana in their annual Fall Brawl on Saturday evening in Brownson Arena.
 
The tri-dual will begin at 5 p.m. with NAIA power University of Providence from Great Falls, Montana taking on Vanguard University out of Costa Mesa, California.  The Mavs will then take on Providence at approximately 6 p.m. before wrapping up the evening with a dual against Vanguard, slated for approximately 7 p.m.
 
Only brief pauses will be held between each leg of the event.
 
Follow the Action
 
All three legs of Saturday's tri-dual will be streamed on the RMAC Network, which can be accessed with a subscription to the service (more information below).  All three legs will be on the same stream with Assistant A.D./Communications Dave Jahnke providing the commentary throughout the evening.
 
Live scoring of the Mavericks' duals on Saturday night can be found on TrackWrestling.com at the specific links below.
 
vs. University of Providence (approximately 6 p.m.)
vs. Vanguard (approximately 7 p.m.)
 
The link for the Providence vs. Vanguard match-up will be added to the Maverick schedule page a few minutes before the dual.
 
RMAC Network News
 
The RMAC Network has moved to a pay-per-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.
 
Last Times Out
 
The Mavericks have started the season strong.  They posted a pair of convincing victories in their last tri-dual with Snow College and Texas Woman's University on Nov. 1 and then crowned four champions while having 20 different wrestlers place in the top six at the Maverick Open on Nov. 2.
 
The Mavs won nine of the ten bouts in each leg of the tri-dual, claiming a 40-5 exhibition win over the Snow Badgers before winning 38-6 over the Texas Woman's Pioneers in their Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference opener.
 
Lorianna Piestewa (124 pounds), Hania Halverson (131), Gretchen Donally (145) and Jayleen Sekona (207) all won their respective weight classes at the Maverick Open.
 
Wrestler of the Week
 
Jayleen Sekona was named as the initial RMAC Wrestler of the Week on Nov. 4 after she went 5-0 on the opening weekend of the season.  The 3-time all-American and fifth-year senior out of Anchorage, Alaska needed just a combined 2:21 to record a pair of 10-0 technical fall wins in the Snow/Texas Woman's tri-dual.  She then scored another 10-0 technical fall win over Texas Woman's' Jaycee Portee and pinned two Fort Hays State Tigers in a combined 2:55 to win the Maverick Open crown.
 
National Rankings
 
The Mavericks moved up one spot to fifth in the first regular season edition of the National Wrestling Coaches Association NCAA Women's Coaches' Poll, which was released on Thursday, after sitting in the No. 6 spot of the preseason edition.
 
The Mavs have 38 points in the Tournament Power Index, which determines the team rankings, and have six wrestlers ranked inside the top ten of their respective weight classes.
 
Returning 124-pound all-American Lorianna Piestewa continues to lead the bunch at No. 2 while Gretchen Donally and Jayleen Sekona both moved up to third at 145 and 207 pounds, respectively.  Donally was ranked seventh in the preseason while Sekona had been tabbed fourth.
 
The trio are a combined 16-0 through the opening weekend as Donally went 6-0 while Piestewa and Sekona are both off to 5-0 starts.
 
Bella Morales is now ranked seventh at 117 pounds after starting out in the No. 5 spot while Adriana Gomez and Hania Halverson have now entered the rankings in the No. 10 spot at 110 and 131 pounds, respectively.  Gomez is 6-1 this season while Halverson is 5-0.
 
Morales went 2-1, losing her only match by injury default at the Maverick Open.
 
Probable Lineup
 
Here is a look at the Mavericks' probable lineup for Saturday's tri-dual as provided by Maverick Head Coach Travis Mercado, who will likely split starts in some of the weight classes for the Mavs' two match-ups.
 
103- Mia Zuniga or Kinlee Brandley
110- #10 Adriana Gomez
117- Morgan Johnson or Sophia Cornish
124- #2 Lorianna Piestewa or Brooke McCurley
131 – #10 Hania Halverson or Thalia Vogelsang
138- Keyla Ajoleza or Mollie Dare
145- #3 Gretchen Donally
160 – Celina Preston or Taylor Colangelo
180 – Maggie Smith or Kimberly Carlin
207 – #3 Jayleen Sekona
 
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 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
 
In official match-ups, The Mavericks are 14-1 all-time in home duals and have won 14 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.
 
Don't Miss or wait until February
 
Saturday's tri-dual will be the last chance that local fans will have a chance to see the Mavericks at home until Feb. 7, 2026, when the Mavs will host their final home dual of the season against Chadron State.
 
Between now and then, the Mavericks will go on trips to Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Nevada. Nebraska and Kansas as well as to Alamosa, Colorado.  They will visit Iowa and Nebraska twice each.
 
A 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 Argos
 
The University of Providence Argos hail from Great Falls, Montana and have one of the top NAIA level programs in the country.  Currently ranked fourth in the NAIA, the Argos took sixth at last year's national championships and had three all-Americans, including 103-pound national champion Erin Hikiji and 138-pound runner-up Waipuilani Estrella-Beauchamp.
 
Estrella-Beauchamp, named as NAIA Women's Wrestler of the Week on Week, was one of four Argos who started their season with victories at the Battle of the Rockies tournament that the Argos hosted last year.  Hikiji, Esther Han and Elise Twait also claimed first place finishes while four other Argos took second.
 
They are ranked fourth as a team in the first regular season edition of the NAIA Women's Wrestling Coaches' Top 20 ratings and have two top-ranked individuals in Hikiji and Paige Morales at 103 and 110 pounds, respectively.  A total of 12 Argos are ranked inside the top 20 of their respective weight classes, including fourth-ranked Estrella-Beauchamp, who pinned top-ranked and defending national champion Jumoke Adekoye of Dickinson State in the 131-pound title match of last weekend's tournament.
 
Coach Matt Atwood's squad went 6-2 in duals last season.
 
About the Lions
 
The Vanguard Lions are in their first year of NCAA eligibility and will contest their first duals of the season on Saturday.  The squad opened up the campaign on Nov. 2 at the Menlo Open in Atherton, California and was led by Lily Avalos, who took the gold in the 131-pound bracket.  Loretta Lopez finished third at 111.
 
During the transition from NAIA to NCAA Division II, Vanguard, was not eligible to compete in a national championship event last year but did win three weight classes at last year's inaugural Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championship dual against Menlo.
 
Coach Joe Evano started the program in 2022-23 and had a pair of NAIA All-Americans in Avalos and River Todd in 2024.
 
They went 2-10 in duals last year.
 
Series Histories
 
Although the Mavs have periodically seen University of Providence wrestlers and have been to each other's tournaments in previous years, they have never had a dual against the Argos, who came to Grand Junction for the 2022 Maverick Open.
 
The Mavs dominated Vanguard, 47-2 in the only previous dual with the Lions.  That was held on Dec. 21, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada during the Desert Duals.  The Mavs benefited from three wins by forfeit and picked up three wins by fall during that dual.
 
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 send a partial squad of their top wrestlers to next weekend's Missouri Valley Open in Marshall, Missouri.  The event is regarded as one of the toughest and deepest women's wrestling tournaments in the country.