GOLDEN, Colo. – The Colorado Mesa men's wrestling team qualified three individuals for the NCAA National Championships at the NCAA Super Region VI Tournament on Saturday (Feb. 28) evening in Lockridge Arena and hosted by Colorado School of Mines.
Colorado Mesa placed fifth as a team finishing with 86.5 points. They were nine points behind fourth-place Colorado School of Mines and finished ahead of rivals Western Colorado and CSU Pueblo.
Nebraska-Kearney won the regional title with 142 points and are sending seven wrestlers to the National Championships. Adams State finished second and are sending six to the NCAAs.
Colorado Mesa, Colorado School of Mines, and San Francisco State are all sending three wrestlers to the National Tournament.
Junior
Owen Cline placed second at 157 pounds after falling to his rival Aaden Valdez of Adams State by fall in the championship bout. Cline defeated Chadron State's Brandon Paredes 10-3 in the opening round of the tournament. He followed that up with a technical fall victory over New Mexico Highlands' Reed McCarty 20-4 with 23 second left in the opening period.
In the semifinals, he earned a 15-6 major decision victory over Nebraska-Kearney's Cael Robb by a 15-6 major decision that essentially punched his ticket to the NCAA Championships and a spot in the finals.
The Orting, Wash. native will make a return trip to the NCAA Tournament after placing fourth last season.
Senior
Tyler Doyle placed second at 285 pounds as he came out of his redshirt season following the injury to
Ruben Samuelson in the dual against Western Colorado. Doyle fell to top-seeded Crew Howard of Nebraska-Kearney 6-1 in the title bout.
Doyle earned a 16-1 technical fall win over David Baxter of Vanguard in the opening round and followed it up with a pin of Carson Hatch of Cal Poly Humboldt in the quarterfinals.
He punched his ticket to the NCAA Tournament and the Regional title bout with a 7-1 win over Chadron State's Eli Reese.
The Littleton, Colo. native will look to improve on his seventh-place finish at last season's NCAA National Championships and become a two-time All-American.
Alex Castaneda took a little bit of a different route to punching his ticket to the NCAA Championships. Castaneda won his first bout of the tournament with a pin of Zane Stoddard at 4:41 which in turn would be a little bit ironic.
He fell to top-seeded Cody Thompson by pin after defeating him in the dual in mid-January which dropped him down into the consolation bracket. The Eaton, Colo. native would wind up with wins over CSU Pueblo's Kevin Boston (9-0), Cal Poly Humboldt's Jayson Victoria (6:35) and Vanguard's Hercules Windrath (11-4) sending him to the third-place bout.
There he would meet up with a familiar foe in Stoddard of San Francisco State. Again, he would earn a pin at the 2:42 mark of the first period to punch his ticket to the National Tournament for the first time.
Apollo Cruz (141) and
Gabriel Carranza (197) each placed fifth at their respective weights. Cruz made some noise early in the tournament as he defeated second-seeded Joseph Airiola of Nebraska-Kearney 7-5 in his first match of the tournament.
Senior
Gabriel Carranza will end his career with a win as he defeated Western Colorado's Sage Harrison 7-0 in the fifth-place match.
Redshirt freshman
AJ Hague placed sixth at 133 pounds.
The three wrestlers will await the bracket release later this week before heading to Sioux Falls for the National Championships. The tournament is scheduled to begin on Friday March 13 at the Sanford Premier Center.
