The Maverick women’s wrestling team is gearing up for what they hope will be another record-setting season. Loaded with veterans and young talent, the team is in a perfect position to repeat and maybe even exceed last year’s historic season.
Last spring, the Mavericks outright had their best season ever. In a school-record, five wrestlers won a Regional Championship, seven finished as All-Americans and Marissa Gallegos became the first-ever Individual National Champion. The team as a whole finished fourth-best in the country, which tied a program-best.
This year, six of the seven All-Americans are returning, while Gallegos stayed on the squad as an assistant coach. This seasoned team is coached by Travis Mercado, who is now in his sixth season at the helm. Colorado Mesa University (CMU) enters the season right where they left off, ranking fourth in the nation in the preseason polls.
While the expectations are certainly high, Mercado and company know that they must still put in the work and compete if they want to be successful.
“The ranking is a number, that’s really what it is. We focus on gratitude in our program. We’re really thankful for the opportunity to compete every day, we’re thankful for things that are going right, things that are going wrong, we express gratitude greatly,” said Head Coach Travis Mercado, “So the rankings are how our peers think of us, and we’re grateful that people think of us as a high level program. We’re just going to go and wrestle. Numbers don’t really mean anything to me, at the end of the day, we’re gonna go out and compete.”
A couple Mavericks might follow in Gallegos’ footsteps this year and bring home an individual championship.
Dalia Garibay is a two-time National Runner-Up at 155 pounds, most recently placing second at last year’s national tournament. Similarly, Jennesis Martinez is another veteran who has been on the cusp of a national title her whole career. Martinez finished third, fourth and fourth again at 101 pounds in her last three respective tournament runs.
Along with veteran All-Americans like Garibay and Martinez, there are some younger wrestlers starting to make a name for themselves. Sophomore Hania Halverson at 123 pounds boasts a 7-1 record and freshman Adriana Gomez is 4-1 at 109 pounds. Fans have many storylines to keep an eye on this season .
This season, CMU will be competing in the newly-established Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC). Prior to this, the RMAC did not oversee any women’s wrestling and CMU did not compete in a conference. The Mavericks are predicted as runaway favorites to win the first-ever RMAC title.
On Nov. 3, CMU started their season against Snow College. The first win of the season came at the hands of Martinez, by technical fall in an 11-0 rout against opponent Jennifer Thomas of Snow College. The final score of the opening duel was 43-2, in favor of the Mavs.They did not lose a single match and recorded four pins.
“I think it’s exciting, it kinda gets the momentum going for everyone. This is a pretty big deal, adding Women’s Wrestling to the RMAC, it’s something that I’ve been looking forward to, Travis has been talking about it for years, so finally seeing it, and it being a real thing, it’s exciting,” said Martinez.
Later Friday evening, the Mavs faced off against Chadron State College, which was the first RMAC dual ever. Once again, the Mavericks made quick work of their opponent and went on to win 41-3 with three pins.
The next day, CMU hosted Maverick Open, which is an annual individual tournament featuring a handful of other schools. The Mavericks posted four champions in Martinez, Adriana Gomez at 109 lbs, Celina Cook at 155 lbs and Jayleen Sekona at 191 lbs.
“When I started this program five years ago and I walked into Brownson Arena and I look up into the rafters and you see RMAC Championship and RMAC Championship, and nationally ranked teams, it was something that I wanted to be a part of, and wanted to build a program around, and now we have the opportunity to finally compete for a conference championship like our peers, and I’m really looking forward to the opportunity to hang a banner, and chase baseball’s banner, they got 30 up there, I have to start with one and chase down 29 more,” said Mercado.
CMU will now go on a long road stand and will not be back in Brownson until Jan. 27 against Adams State University. Next up, the Mavericks wrestle in the Missouri Valley Open on Nov. 17 and Nov. 18.
Image courtesy of CMU Athletics
