COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University Mavericks crowned five champions and had nine finalists across eight of the ten weight classes as they dominated the field to win the inaugural team title at the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Women's Wrestling Championships on Saturday here at Colorado College's Reid Gymnasium.
 
Jennesis Martinez, undefeated in 2024-25, and Hania Halverson successfully defended individual titles and were joined by JoJo McDaniel, Lorianna Piestewa and Erica Smith on the top spot of the podium as the Mavericks won the first-ever RMAC Tournament Cup after taking the unofficial team title in 2024, when they had six individual champions at the initial RMAC Championships in Denver.

Official team scores were not kept in 2024 but the nation's ninth-ranked Mavericks scored 149 ½ this time around to out-pace No. 8 Simon Fraser University, which has won the first two RMAC regular season titles thanks to narrow dual meet wins over the Mavericks in each of the last two seasons. 
 
The Red Leafs had the champion in each of the final three weight classes on Saturday and finished with 129 team points after advancing five wrestlers to the finals.
 
Chadron State finished third in the team standings with 82 ½ points while Adams State had the other two champions, their first in program history, to finish fourth with 73 ½.  The Grizzlies also had the Wrestler of the Meet in 110-pound champion Austria Holland.
 
Texas Woman's finished fifth with 68 ½ points and had one finalist and Chadron had two.
 
All 14 Mavericks that competed in Saturday's tournament placed, including 12 who finished amongst the top three in their weight class to earn a medal.  In addition to their tournament-leading five champions, the Mavericks also four second place finishers and three others who took third.
 
As a team, the Mavs went 34-11 throughout the day and recorded 14 of the tournament's 29 total pins.

Martinez, who is now 6-0 this season, was the top seed at 103 pounds after winning the initial RMAC Championship at 101 pounds.  The 4-time All-American who is ranked eighth in the nation this season, defeated two Chadron State Eagles on Saturday, pinning Briana Vollendorf in 1:21 in the semifinals before taking a 6-2 win over No. 2 seed Mana Chanthasone in the final of the 4-woman bracket.
 
McDaniel, a freshman who now leads the Mavericks with 24 wins this season, won the 117-pound title, taking out a pair of Red Leaf wrestlers.  As the No. 2 seed, she defeated third-seeded Ivy Threatful by a 14-3 technical fall margin in the opening round before pinning top-seeded and national No. 8 Maddie Mackenzie just 59 seconds in the second period of the championship bout.
 
The Mavs then crowned their third champion at 124 pounds as Piestewa went 3-0 with two 10-0 technical fall wins and a semifinal pin.  She was seeded second and defeated fourth-seeded Bella Devoto of Adams State in the final after the Grizzly upset Maverick freshman Brooke McCurley, the top seed, by a 4-2 margin in the semifinals.
 
Piestewa, who hails from Gallup, New Mexico, is now 7-2 this season while McCurley bounced back with two consolation bracket wins to take third.
 
Halverson, who was the top seed at 131 pounds after winning the 123-pound title at the 2024 RMAC Championships, received a first-round bye and then pinned Adams State's Brisa Salas just 80 seconds into the semifinal before needing just 3 ½ minutes to record a 12-2 technical fall win over third-seeded Brooke Zejada of Texas Woman's in the title bout.
 
Smith, a Maverick senior, was seeded fourth but emerged victorious at 145 pounds after pinning top-seeded Amelia Lucas with 23 seconds remaining in the semifinal bout. She then knocked off teammate Celina Cooke by a 4-1 margin in the final.
 
The Mavs also had three other second-place finishers as freshman Sophia Cornish took second to Holland at 110 pounds while Maverick teammate Isabella Morales finished third in that bracket. Cornish, who was seeded first and ranked seventh in the nation, edged Morales by a 2-1 score in a semifinal match-up before falling 10-6 to the history-making Holland, the tournament's second seed.
 
Morales, who was seeded fourth, went 3-1 on the day with her only loss coming to her teammate.
 
Maverick freshman Gretchen Donally was seeded second and finished in that spot at 160 pounds.  She went 2-1, claiming a 10-0 technical fall win in the quarterfinals and a pin over No. 3 seed Poorna Babu of Texas Woman's in the semifinal before running out of time in a narrow 8-7 defeat to top-seeded Lene McCrackin of Simon Fraser.  McCrackin is ranked eighth nationally, two spots ahead of Donally.
 
Kimberly Carlin also placed fourth for the Mavericks in that weight class.
 
At 180 pounds, Alison Evans went 2-1 with two easy 10-0 technical falls wins as the top seed.  However, she also fell by an 8-7 margin to No. 2 seed Paige Maher of Simon Fraser in the final.  Evans is a native of Colorado Springs and was wrestling in her hometown.
 
Maverick veteran Isabeau Shalack finished third at 207 pounds after going 3-1 while Valerie Glenn finished fifth at 138 pounds after going 2-2.
 
The Mavericks will close out the dual meet portion of their season next Friday (Feb. 7) with a non-conference match-up at Adams State and will then prepare for the NCWWC Region 6 Tournament on Feb. 22 in Denton, Texas, which will qualify wrestlers for the Mar. 7-8 national championships in Coralville, Iowa.