SIOUX FALLS, S.D.— Colorado Mesa University redshirt junior Owen Cline clinched his second straight all-America honor as he went 2-1 to lead the Colorado Mesa University Mavericks on the first day of the NCAA Division II Men's Wrestling Championships on Friday here at the Sanford Premier Center.
 
The Orting, Washington native took fourth at last year's national tournament and will finish between third and eighth when he continues the tournament on Saturday.
 
Cline is now won of just five Maverick wrestlers to earn two or more all-America honors in the program's NCAA Division II era.
 
The Mavs have now had at least one all-American in 14 of the last 15 years.
 
As the sixth seed in the 157-pound bracket, Cline fought back from a 7-2 deficit early in the second period and scored the final five points in his 10-8 opening round win over Lander's Reid Noble. 
 
He was then defeated by No. 3 seed Aaden Valdez of Adams State by pin at the 4:40 mark of the championship quarterfinal.
 
However, Cline bounced back with a 14-11 win in the consolation bracket over Glenville State's Jimmie Bailes to clinch a top eight finish.  In that match, Cline built a 6-1 lead with two first period takedowns and was up 9-6 at the end of the second.
 
He then scored a reversal and takedown in the third period to build a 14-7 lead, which proved to be enough.
 
Cline, who is now 14-4 this season, will face No. 7 seed Holden Huhn of Gannon in the consolation quarterfinals and will need to win his first two matches of the day on Saturday to match his 2025 national tournament finish.  If he were to go 3-0, he would take third.
 
Meanwhile, redshirt senior teammate Tyler Doyle fell just one match shy of a repeat all-America honor at 285 pounds.  Doyle went 2-2 throughout the day, picking up an 8-2 win over Wisconsin-Parkside's Cooper Caraway in a pigtail round match-up.
 
Doyle, ranked tenth nationally coming in to the national tournament, then recorded a mild upset of No. 8 seed Torin Forsyth of Central Missouri, pinning the Mule sophomore in the waning seconds.  Doyle was winning 7-2 at the time thanks to the preceding takedown.
 
Doyle then took a 1-0 lead over top-seeded Dorian Crosby of Gannon with an early second period escape but gave up a takedown later in the period to fall behind, 3-1.
 
Crosby then recorded an escape right before the mid-way point of the third period to complete the scoring in the 4-1 decision.
 
That result dropped Doyle into the consolation bracket, where he suffered a heartbreaking 8-5 sudden victory decision to Indianapolis' Cale Gray.  Doyle led the match 5-2 after a third period escape with 1:17 to go but was forced into overtime after Gray recorded a match-tying takedown just 1:01 later.
 
Gray then scored the winning takedown 25 seconds into the extra period as Doyle saw his season and career come to an end.
 
He went 17-5 this season, including 14 matches as an unattached wrestler and finishes his career with 81 victories.
 
CMU's other representative at the tournament was first time national qualifier Alex Castaneda.  He went 0-2, dropping a 10-2 major decision to No. 6 seed Gabriel Onorato of Glenville State in the Round of 16.  Castaneda then fell, 16-5 to Upper Iowa's Ethen Doty in a consolation match during the first session.
 
Castaneda went 19-12 this season.
 
The Mavericks scored 8 ½ team points throughout the day and are in 24^th place.