GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Three Maverick wrestlers will represent Colorado Mesa University at this weekend's NCAA Division II Championships in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
 
Returning all-Americans Owen Cline and Tyler Doyle will be joined by first-time national qualifier Alex Castaneda at the tournament in the Sanford Premier Center.
 
Action will get underway at 10 a.m. CDT (9 a.m. Mountain) on both Friday and Saturday mornings.
 
The second session will begin at 5 p.m. CDT (4 p.m. Mountain) on Friday, which will slice the field to eight men in each of the ten weight classes.  They will then battle through the championship semifinals, consolation round and placement matches on Saturday morning and afternoon.
 
The championship finals session will begin at 7 p.m. CDT (6 p.m. Mountain) on Saturday to crown the individual and team champions.
 
The entire tournament will be streamed for free on NCAA.com.
 
Live results and brackets can be seen on FloWerestling at this link.
 
A complete recap of the Mavericks' efforts will be posted each evening.
 
Last Time Out
 
Castaneda, Cline and Doyle all qualified for the national tournament after finishing in the top three of their respective weight classes at the Feb. 28 NCAA Division II Super Region VI Championships in Golden, Colorado.
 
Cline took second at 157 pounds as did Doyle at 285 pounds.  Castaneda finished third at 149.
 
As a team, the Mavericks finished fifth out of 13 teams with 86.5 points.
 
They had six overall placers as Apollo Cruz (141) and Gabriel Carranza (197) both placed fifth.  AJ Hague placed sixth at 133 pounds.
 
Seeds & Rankings
 
Two of the Mavericks' three national qualifiers are seeded and were included in the final set of National Wrestling Coaches Association's NCAA Division II Rankings, released last Friday (Mar 6.)
 
Cline moved up a spot in the rankings and is now sixth at 157 pounds, the same seed he will carry in to the national tournament.
 
Doyle, who was ranked 14^th before the regional, is now tenth at 285 pounds.
 
Thanks to those two individuals, the Mavericks have 12 points in the team rankings, based on a Tournament Power Index.  That puts the Mavs in a tie for 23^rd in the rankings.  They had been ranked 21^st in the pre-regional rankings.
 
CMU has been ranked in the top 25 throughout the season.
 
Quest for All-America Honors
 
The Maverick trio will be aiming for NWCA All-America honors, which go to the top eight finishers in each weight class.  Those will all be determined on Friday with wrestlers needing to win two of their first three matches unless they were drawn into the pigtail rounds, which will require them to win three times on Friday.
 
Doyle has been drawn into such a round.
 
Those that go 2-0 —or 3-0 in the case of being in a pigtail— will advance to Saturday morning's championship semifinals and are guaranteed of at least a sixth place finish.   
 
Cline and Doyle are both returning all-Americans.  They finished fourth and seventh, respectively, at last year's tournament.
 
Both are hoping to be the Mavs' first 2-time all-Americans since Fred Green, who won the 2021 national title after receiving all-America accolades in 2020, when the NCAA Tournament was canceled on the day before due to the outbreak of COVID-19.
 
Green, 2015 national champion James Martinez, Nick Petersen and Dylan Granard are the only other 2-time NCAA All-Americans in the program's history.
 
The Mavs have had 24 all-Americans since resuming their program in 2006-07, crowning at least one in all but one year (2024) of the last 14 since 2012.
 
Bracket Paths
 
The complete tournament brackets for all ten weight classes can be seen here.
 
Castaneda, who has a 17-10 record, has been pitted against Glenville State's Gabriel Onarato in the Round of 16 of the 149-pound bracket for this weekend's tournament.  Onarato is 24-6 and is seeded sixth.
 
If Castaneda were to win, he would face either No. 3 seed Cody Thompson of the Colorado School of Mines or Central Oklahoma's Bam West in the quarterfinals.  Castaneda handed Thompson of the season during the RMAC dual campaign before Thompson beat Castaneda in the regional two weeks ago.
 
If Castaneda loses to Onarato, he would fall into the consolation bracket and face a pigtail round loser.
 
Cline, who is 12-3 this season, has been seeded sixth and will face Lander's Reid Noble in his first match.  A victory would likely put him against a familiar foe in Adams State's Aaden Valdez, who is the No. 3 seed.  Valdez, who has defeated Cline twice this season, and three times over the last two years, will wrestle Griffin Lundeen of Northern State in the opening round.
 
Valdez took third at last year's NCAA Championships after Cline medically forfeited the third place match.
 
As is the case for Castaneda, if Cline were to drop his opening round match, he would take on a pigtail round loser in the opening round of consolations and would need to win three times to finish as an All-American.
 
Doyle, will take on Wisconsin Parkside's' Coopear Caraway in a pigtail round match early in Friday's session.  If he wins, he would move into the Round of 16 against Central Missouri's Torin Forsyth, who is seeded eighth.  Caraway has a 22-10 record this season while Forsyth is 25-5.
 
Doyle is 15-3 on the season, including 14 matches while competing unattached at four open tournaments.  He was planning to redshirt this season before coming into the lineup for the regional championship.
 
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.