GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— After competing in a tournament setting over the weekend, the Colorado Mesa University women's wrestling team will return its focus to dual meets and look to take a large step towards a potential Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference regular season title when the Mavs wrestle in Wednesday's Desert Duals in Las Vegas, Nevada.
 
The nation's fifth-ranked Mavericks, 3-2 overall and 1-0 in RMAC duals in the early portion of the season, will take on No. 8 Simon Fraser (4-1, 2-0 RMAC) in the first of five match-ups throughout the day inside the Flamingo Hilton Hotel Ballroom.
 
Four of them are against fellow nationally-ranked opponents.
 
The first match-up against the Red Leafs, which will come at 8 a.m. PST (9 a.m. Mountain) will count towards the RMAC standings and give the winner the inside track to the regular season title, which has eluded the Mavs and gone to the Red Leafs in the first two years of the conference sponsorship of the sport.
 
Later in the day, the Mavs will face No. 7 Presbyterian, No. 16 and event host Wartburg, No. 3 Grand Valley State and Vanguard.  The Mavs may also pick up an additional dual and field a "B" team lineup.
 
The Mavs' complete schedule can be seen on the team schedule page (times converted to Mountain Time), which will be updated with results throughout the day.  The complete event schedule,(Pacific TImes) can be found on the Wartburg website- https://go-knights.net/sports/2025/12/9/desert-duals.aspx.
 
Last Time Out
 
The Mavericks took fourth in the team standings at Sunday's North Central College Invitational in Naperville, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.  The Mavs had six individual placers and scored 74 team points.
 
Redshirt senior Jayleen Sekona led three Maverick placers in the "A" Division, taking second at 207 pounds.  Mia Zuniga finished third at 103 while Gretchen Donally took fifth at 145.
 
The Mavs also had three placers in the "B" Divisions, a group led by sophomore Thalia Vogelsang, who went 4-0 to take the 131-pound bracket.  Freshman Delarie Juarez finished second at 145 pounds while Taylor Colangelo finished third at 160.
 
A full recap can be seen here.
 
National Rankings
 
The latest edition of the National Wrestling Coaches Association NCAA Women's Coaches' Poll was released last on Dec. 4.  The Mavericks remained in the No. 5 spot of the team rankings as they had been in the first regular season edition of the rankings, which had been released on Nov. 13.  They were ranked sixth in the preseason edition.
 
Iowa remained in the No. 1 spot as the whole of the top five remained the same with McKendree, Grand Valley State and North Central sandwiched between the Hawkeyes and Mavs.
 
The Mavs have 38 points in the Tournament Power Index, which determines the team rankings, and continue to 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 Jayleen Sekona dropped one spot to fourth at 207 pounds.  Gretchen Donally also slipped three spots to sixth at 145 pounds.
 
Meanwhile, Bella Morales moved up a spot to sixth at 117 pounds.
 
Mia Zuniga re-entered the rankings and is now eighth at 103 pounds while Adriana Gomez moved up a spot to ninth at 110 pounds. 
 
Hania Halverson fell out of the top ten and 131 pounds.
 
The full rankings can be seen here: https://nwcaonline.com/news/2025/12/4/national-wrestling-coaches-association-no-change-to-top-5-coming-out-of-thanksgiving-holiday.aspx
 
Tied for second and chasing the record
 
Maverick redshirt senior Jayleen Sekona claimed her 86^th and 87^th career wins on Sunday while going 2-1 to finish second at the North Central Invite.  The 3-time all-American out of Anchorage, Alaska, is now even with program standout Jennesis Martinez for second place on the Mavs' all-time wins chart and is now eying the Mavs' all-time wins record of 94, held by Marissa Gallegos, who won the 2022-23 national title with an unbeaten 28-0 record to cap a 94-8 career over four seasons from 2019-23.
 
Now just seven wins shy of Gallegos, Sekona could break that record in January.
 
RMAC Rivalry
 
Now in the third year of conference sponsorship of the sport of women's wrestling, CMU and Simon Fraser have developed quite a rivalry of Western powers.
 
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, who look to avenge that on Wednesday morning.
 
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 tournament.
 
About the Opponents
 
Simon Fraser
 
The Red Leafs started out the season unranked but surged all the way to No. 8 in the latest set of national rankings after some impressive efforts at the Missouri Valley Open.
 
They are 4-1 in dual meets and hold a 2-0 RMAC record.  Their lone loss came 25-22 to No. 11 Fort Hays State.  They have defeated both Adams State and Texas Woman's on the road this year.
 
They have a pair of nationally-ranked wrestlers in No. 1 207-pounder Julia Richey and No. 5 145-pounder Liv Wieber, who could feature in what could be pivotal bouts against the Mavs' Jayleen Sekona and Gretchen Donally, respectively.
 
Presbyterian
 
The Blue Hose are 4-2 in duals and have suffered losses only to No. 1 Iowa and then seventh-ranked King.  They are now ranked seventh themselves.  They have scored more than 40 points in each of their three wins.
 
They have four nationally-ranked wrestlers in No. 3 Chloe Dearwester (110), No. 4 Carina Giangeruso (138), No. 5 Alyssa Mahan (124) and No. 7 Max Cuyler (160).  Giangeruso and Cuyler are returning all-Americans after placing fourth and sixth at last year's NCWWC National Championships and helped lead the Blue Hose to a sixth place team finish at the national meet.

Wartburg 

Wartburg is 3-0 in duals this season winning matches against Simpson, Wisconsin-Stevens Point and Augustana (Ill.).  They went 7-3 last year and took 22^nd at the national tournament with two wrestlers falling just one match shy of all-America honors.
 
Rewa Chababo, ranked sixth this year at 207 pounds, was one of those.  Kylie Rule, who sits eight at 138 pounds, is the Knights' other ranked wrestler helping propel them to a No. 16 (tie) team ranking.

Grand Valley State

The third-ranked Lakers are 3-0 in duals this season and claimed a 23-21 home win over No. 2 North Central before winning Great Lakes Valley Conference wins over Upper Iowa and William Jewell on Dec. 7.
 
They have a nationally-ranked wrestler in all ten weight classes including top-ranked Rayana Sahagun and Katerina Lange at 103 and 138, pounds, respectively.

Vanguard

Vanguard is 1-4 in duals this year, their second at the NCAA level.  The Lions' victory came 24-13 over Menlo's "B" Team at the Westcliff Warrior Classic on Nov. 21.
 
Series Histories
 
The Mavs are 1-2 all-time in duals against Simon Fraser.  All three meetings have been in Las Vegas and have been decided by a combined 14 points.  CMU's lone win came on Dec. 18, 2022 by a 26-19 margin.
 
The Mavs are also 1-2 against Presbyterian, having met up with the Blue Hose in each of the last three years at the National Duals.   Presbyterian won last season's match-up, 24-20.  The Mavs won in 2022-23 by a 29-14 margin, the largest in the series.
 
The Mavs are 2-0 against Wartburg, having wrestled against the Knights at the Desert Duals in both of the past two years.  The Mavs squeaked out a 22-21 win last year after winning 34-11 in 2023.
 
Wednesday's match-up with Grand Valley State will mark the first time that two teams have faced each other in a dual.
 
The Mavs have dominated Vanguard in the two previous match-ups and have lost just a single bout.  The Mavs won 47-2 over the Lions at last year's Desert Duals and defeated them 45-4 earlier this season at the Maverick Fall Brawl.
 
Home Mat Dominance
 
In official action, the Mavericks are now 16-1 all-time in home duals and have won 16 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.
 
The Mavs have just one remaining home dual this season, which will come on Feb. 7 against Chadron State.
 
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.).
 
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
 
Wednesday's event will wrap up the 2025 portion of the Mavs' season.
 
After a holiday break, the Mavs will return to competition at the NWCA/USMC National Dual Meet Championships on Jan. 8-10 in Cedar Falls, Iowa.