In the most anticipated home wrestling dual meet of the year, the Battle in Brownson saw the Colorado Mesa University men’s wrestling team top CSU-Pueblo in a tight-nit matchup.
The energy was electric as the Mavericks stepped onto the mat and faced the Thunderwolves in a meet that came down to the final two matches of the night. Going into Friday, CMU has not won a duel against CSU-Pueblo in three years and they hoped to turn that around.
“We knew that CSU–Pueblo has beaten us the last three years so we wanted to try and get it done and get a win out of this.” Head Coach Chuck Pipher said.
Oh yea, Donnie Negus is back. After being sidelined due to injuries for a couple of weeks Negus came back in a big way and helped secure the win for the Mavericks with his 5-1 win at 197 pounds over Jayson Davis.
“Tonight was obviously great. I went out there I won I got some points for my team. This season has been rough but also really good. Wrestling is tough you deal with injuries. I have wrestled over the past two weeks.” Negus said.
Ranked No. 11 Donnie has been a key player on the Maverick wrestling roster. Being back on the mat was something that Negus looked forward to and was glad to be back.
“ It was so awesome to be back. It was so much fun. I love this stuff.” Negus said.
The Mavericks got off to a slower start when Dylan Keeney lost in a decision to 11th ranked D’Andre Brumfield 10-6. But then in the 141-bout, redshirt sophomore Daniel Van Hoose was able to pin down opponent Dino Cancellieri.
“Van Hoose getting that win was huge getting that headlock. You don’t think about it at the time but him getting those bonus points were huge.” Pipher said
The Mavericks saw two straight match losses and CSU-Pueblo was then able to regain the lead with a major decision from Gavin Melendez against Dyllan Fuchs 13-5 at 149. Erik Contreras got pinned by Ruben Garcia at 157 pounds.
Fred Green who was having his first match at Brownson ever, showed up in big ways at 157 pounds with a 4-2 decision over Isaiah Diggs. Green came into the night ranked tenth in the nation and had a team-high 16 dual wins at the end of the match.
“It was a really good win from Fred, that Isaiah Diggs has been around and so it was a really good win by him.” Pipher said
The 174 match was one to watch for sure. CSU-P’s Brendon Kelley may have gotten the decision against Colorado Mesa’s Seth Latham, but Latham slammed Kelley to the ground during an escape attempt in what was one of the slams of the night. However, the highlight smal didn’t produce any points and Latham fell to a 6-4 decision.
The Mavericks found control when Nolan Krone won big with a tech fall to Jayson Davis. .
Donnie Negus’ win helped secure the dual win for CMU despite having two matching left in the night.
Now leading the Thunderwolves by 1 the Mavericks looked to Hunter Mooring to help further the lead. Mooring was faced by challenging Gavin Nye and got pinned down. The Mavericks were now down by five, however Collin Metzgar won at 125 by forfeit and was able to lock up the 23-22 win for the Mavericks.
The Mavericks now face one of their toughest opponents on the season when the ninth ranked Colorado School of Mines come to town. The second dual of the weekend will take place at 6 p.m.
