INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The Colorado Mesa men's wrestling team had a solid opening day of competition at the NCAA National Championship tournament on Friday (Mar. 14) at Corteva Coliseum. The Mavericks brought five wrestlers to the meet and will come home with three All-Americans as they are guaranteed to finish in the top 8 at their respective weights.
Owen Cline has remained unbeaten at 157-pounds as he won his first two matches of the day, but it wasn't without controversy and excitement. He defeated No. 3 seed Jake Nicolosi 11-9 in his first match but that came with a little review and timing issues. Cline was called for locking hands, but the officials determined time would have run out when the locking hands took place, so Cline was named the winner.
In the quarterfinals, the Orting, Wash. native defeated Glenville State's Guy Deleonardis 10-7 to punch his ticket to the semis and earn his first All-American honor.
Cline will take on Central Oklahoma's Gabe Johnson in the semifinals with the winner earning a spot in the national final while both are guaranteed no worse than sixth place at the weight.
At 125 pounds,
Dayson Torgerson will be bringing home hardware for the first time in his career as he won a pair of matches on the first day of the national tournament. Torgerson opened with an 18-1 technical fall win over Colt Brown of Montevallo before falling to No. 4 seed Anthony Anciete of Tiffin 10-5.
In his blood round match, the sophomore came back and defeated Logan Sallot of Gannon 13-7. He moves on to face Trevon Gray of Pitt-Johnstown in the consolation quarterfinals.
Tyler Doyle may have had one of the longer days to earn his first All-American honor at 285 pounds. Doyle earned an 11-3 major decision victory over Isaiha Casto of Glenville State in a preliminary match followed by a mild upset with a 5-2 win over No. 8 seed Luke Tweeton of Mary.
Doyle fell to Freddie Retter of Kutztown 5-2 in the quarters after Retter upset top-seeded Crew Howard of Nebraska-Kearney in the first round to hand him his first loss of the season. That dropped Doyle into the Blood Round needing to win one to become an All-American.
He did just that as the Highlands Ranch, Colo. native defeated Isaac Sheeran of Lander 4-2 to move on. He will now take on Gannon's Dorian Crosby in his first match tomorrow.
Redshirt junior
Gus Dalton may have pulled off one of the biggest shockers of the tournament with his first match of the day. The Emery, Utah native defeated top seeded Hayden Pummel of Glenville State by pin at 3:54 to move into the quarterfinals at 174-pounds.
Dalton then dropped a pair of heartbreakers falling 11-7 to Upper Iowa's Lawson Losee and then to Minnesota State's Drake Hayward 8-7 to bow out of the tournament just one match shy of becoming an All-American.
Redshirt junior
Gabriel Carranza dropped a pair of heartbreaking preliminary round matches at 197 pounds. He fell 11-9 in his first match to Chase Stegall of Wisconsin before suffering a second setback 11-6 to Eli Reese from Gannon.
Colorado Mesa is in 12
th place as a team with 23.5 points which is the highest total of any team in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and trails only Nebraska-Kearney from the region. The Lopers are the day one leader with 64 points.
Action is set to begin tomorrow at 10am CDT.
