CORALVILLE, Iowa— A historic day was a special and record-setting one for the Colorado Mesa University women's wrestling team, who crowned four NCAA All-Americans on Friday here at the inaugural NCAA Championships which got underway here in the Xtream Arena.
All four of the qualified Mavericks are guaranteed of top eight finishes in their respective weight classes.
The Mavericks went 9-3 as a team throughout the day and won all five of their matches during the morning session before each of the four Mavericks won an evening match to secure their all-America status.
The Mavs also racked up 29 ½ team points and are in ninth place of the team standings after the first day of the tournament.
Sophomore
Lorianna Piestewa, CMU's only all-American at the NCWWC National Championships in 2025, the predecessor to the NCAA Tournament, went 2-0 and advanced to the semifinals of the 124-pound bracket.
Meanwhile,
Mia Zuniga,
Adriana Gomez and
Jayleen Sekona combined for seven more wins and are still alive in the consolation portion of the 103, 110 and 207-pound brackets, respectively.
Additionally, Gomez went 3-1 throughout the day and set the new CMU record for single-season wins with 32 while earning her first career all-America honor. She went 2-2 at the 2024 NCWWC National Tournament before redshirting last year.
Sekona also made history winning her 100
th career match in the opening round by medical forfeit before claiming a 10-5 win in the consolation bracket over Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference rival Esther Peters of Chadron State to become just the fourth 4-time all-American in the history of the Maverick program.
Zuniga is now a repeat all-American after taking eighth at last year's NCWWC tournament while wrestling for King University.
Gomez was the first Maverick to win an NCAA Tournament match as she blitzed Katie Simmons of Mount Olive, 11-0 in the pigtail round. Gomez then edged eighth-seeded Afftynn Stusse of Wartburg by a 3-2 score to reach the quarterfinals, where she was downed by top-seeded Audrey Jimenez of Lehigh.
However, Gomez bounced back to claim a 10-2 win over Alexandra Tchekounova of Quincy to claim her record setting 32
nd win of the campaign, one more than Claire DiCugno won in the 2021-22 season.
Gomez, now 33-13 on the year, will take on McKendree's Gabriel Tedesco, the No. 4 seed, in her opening match on Saturday.
Zuniga had a similar path although she avoided the pigtail round in the 103-pound bracket.
Seeded third, Zuniga pinned fellow returning all-American Aaliyah Payne-Parris of Sacred Heart with 30 seconds remaining in the first period of the opening round.
The Maverick junior then suffered a 12-4 loss to Quincy's Trinity Pendergrass, seeded third, but was able to bounce back for an 8-6 with over East Stroudsburg's Olivia Klein to guarantee all-America status.
Zuniga, now 23-8 this season, will face Genesis Ramirez of Aurora on Saturday morning.
Piestewa, seeded seventh at 124 pounds, claimed an 11-0 technical fall over West Liberty's Mariah Mills in the opening round and then scored a 4-point takedown early in the second period of her 8-5 win over King's Virginia Foard to reach the semifinals.
Foard was seeded second.
Piestewa, who is 26-6 this season, will take on No. 3 seed Xochitl Mota-Pettis of Quincy in the Saturday's championship semifinals.
Sekona, seeded sixth at 207 pounds, won by medical forfeit in the opening round to claim her 100
th win before dropping a tight 4-2 decision to third-seeded Caroline Ward of North Central in the quarterfinals.
However, Sekona was able to beat Peters in the all-American round after also beating Peters to close out the regular season just less than a month ago.
She now has a 29-9 record this season and 101-35 record in her career while joining Jenessis Martinez and 2023 NCWWC National Champion Marissa Gallegos in the 4-time all-America club.
Sekona, CMU's winningest wrestler in program history, will wrestle Sacred Heart's Josephine Larson in her first match on Saturday.
Saturday's championship semifinals and placement rounds will begin at 10 a.m. CST (9 a.m. Mountain). If Piestewa were able to win her semifinal, she would wrestle in the championship session at 7 p.m. CST (6 p.m. Mountain).
Both sessions will be streamed live on ESPN+.
