The Mavericks slammed their opponent to the mat in their first Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference matchup.
The Colorado Mesa University (CMU) men’s wrestling team dove into the RMAC with a big 32-17 win over No. 24 Chadron State College.
“It’s our home opener dual and its RMAC, it’s kind of tough to lose an RMAC dual right away and it’s hard to win in the end unless someone knocks them off,” Head coach Chuck Pipher said. “We wanted to focus on a good win, we just keep building on that.”
The first bout of the night came in the 125-pound weight class. Junior Collin Metzgar dominated with a 9-0 lead over Tate Stoddard and eventually won by pin in 3:57.
“Collin Metzgar, he’s worked hard this summer. He was a little heavy on Monday, but he worked it off and he did pretty well there” Coach Pipher said.
Metzgar’s bout was followed by two back-to-back wins from the Eagles, with both matches being won by decision in the 133 and 141-pound weight class.
The next win for the Mavericks came in the 149-weight class with redshirt sophomore Daniel Van Hoose with a pin in the second round. This pushed CMU’s lead to 12-6 early in the meet.
“Daniel Van Hoose with a big win there, tossed a guy to his back to get the pin,” Pipher said.
CMU took on two nationally ranked wrestlers in this dual meet. Chadron State is home to No. 5 Chase Clasen and No. 10 ranked Wade French. They both lost to the Maverick counterparts.
Payton Tawater contributed the first upset. Tawater won by a cradle pin over Chase Clasen in 4:57 in the 157-pound matchup.
“I mean Tawaters’ tough out there and he’s always good for some bonus points,” Coach Pipher said.
CMU’s Seth Latham has the biggest lopsided matchup with a second-round pin that earned him bonus points in the 174-weight class. Nolan Krone also won with some bonus points by tech fall, 16-1, in the 184-weight class.
Junior Donnie Negus came through with a huge upset. Negus squared up against No. 10 French in the 197-weight class. This was done by two takedowns on Negus’s end that elevated him towards a 5-0 win. He also had more than three minutes of riding time.
CMU competed with dominant stature finishing the day with a total of five pins and two huge upsets. This was the Mavericks fourth match of the season and things are definitely starting to come together.
The Mavericks will travel to both Kearney, NE and Buffalo CO. to compete in the UNK Loper Open on Saurday, Nov. 23rd. This will be an all-day event and will be held at the Exposition Center.
