Playing sports at a collegiate level is impressive. According to the NCAA just only around 7% of high school athletes make it to the collegiate level. It’s even more impressive, then, when members of the same family both compete in college. Nick and Marissa Gallegos are the latest pair of Maverick siblings.
Born just 20 months apart, Nick and Marissa have shared a special bond since childhood, and even continue to live together today. “We were always the closest growing up; if something was going on, we both knew about it and we talked about it. We also picked on each other a lot growing up, and we still do every now and then. [Nick] still tries to get under my skin, living in the same apartment,” Marissa Gallegos said.
Redshirt junior 123-pounder Marissa Gallegos is one of the best to ever wrestle for the Mavericks. Gallegos is a three-time All-American and has amounted a historic career record of 74-8. Marissa is currently ranked first in the country and has yet to give up a single point.
Redshirt sophomore Nick Gallegos has also found success on the mat. Gallegos won a state championship in 2019 before committing to the Mavericks in 2020. Gallegos finished fourth at 2021 NCAA Regional Tournament and has also totaled a winning record at 24-17. Gallegos decided to redshirt this year to gain another year of experience.
“At the end of my freshman year, they pulled me out and let me wrestle-off for the starting spot. I ended up taking it and then finishing fourth [at regionals]. Last year was a good year and I did everything right, but just had some little things, like some technical issues. This year, I decided to look back at that and get a little better. I’ve been wrestling unattached these last weeks, and ended up taking fifth at Kearney, so it was a solid tournament,” Nick Gallegos said.
The Gallegos’ are a major wrestling family. All six siblings have or still wrestle, and Nick and Marissa are not the only family members to wrestle collegiately. The duo have an older brother who wrestled in Kentucky and a younger sister, Shayla, who is ranked second in the state of Colorado at 115 pounds. The senior in high school plans to follow her older siblings footsteps and also wrestle for Colorado Mesa University.
In fact, Shayla Gallegos wrestled unattached at the Maverick Open on Nov. 5. The younger Gallegos showed promise and went 4-3 and placed fifth against college talent.
When they are not bickering, the siblings pick each other’s brain for their wrestling knowledge and just hang out in general.
“If I lose a match, we will watch it together and we’ll figure out where I went wrong or certain tendencies my opponent has and what I could try next time, and vice versa. Once we have our discussion, though, we move on, because we don’t want to just talk about wrestling for the rest of our lives forever,” Marissa Gallegos said.
Marissa plans to continue wrestling after college at the Olympic level. In fact, the Denver native practiced at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs over the summer and credited that experience for helping her to realize lapses in her wrestling.
She looks to carry her professional training into her last year here at CMU and bring home her first-ever collegiate national title. Gallegos finished third at the national tournament her redshirt freshman year, and runner-up the year after with a broken hand and third again last season. When reflecting on her championship prospects this year, Gallegos was unfazed by past finishes.
“Sometimes, end results don’t show your abilities. I’ve been capable of winning a national title since my freshman year. Things happen for a reason and it’s molding me to become a better wrestler. I’ve still gotten better, and I’ve still made steps at the senior level. Even if college doesn’t work out, I don’t put too much stress on that, because, at the end of the day, I’m wrestling past college, and I’ve already made a senior national team, which is harder than a national title,” Marissa Gallegos said.
Marissa will go down as a program legend and Nick still has two more seasons to build on what has already been a successful career. There may even be more Gallegos members wrestling for the school in the coming years. At any rate, the Gallegos siblings have made a profound impact on CMU wrestling, and fans should be excited to see how their collegiate careers shape up.
