Caleb Burggraaf
Tip of the Burg

The Mesa State wrestling team has not exactly excelled since it was brought back to the college for the 2006-07 season. The team has yet to finish above .500 in a season and has never been able to continually put wrestlers into the National Championships. When it comes to getting wrestlers there, Mesa State has sent some very good athletes into the national spotlight, but has never sent more than one to the competition a year, and none of those have made repeat appearances.
When one looks at all of those facts, it is hard to see what the Mesa State Mavericks are working towards as they enter their 5th season back. Coach Chuck Pipher, a hall-of-famer at CSU Pueblo, has done an excellent job taking a brand new program and making it competitive, but competitive teams don’t always fill trophy cases.
The biggest reason that I say competitive doesn’t always work is that the Mavericks are in arguably the toughest conference in all of Division II wrestling. Five teams are ranked in the top 20 from the RMAC, including Nebraska-Kearney, Western State, and Adams State. While Mesa did receive votes in the latest poll to get into the top 20 of the nation, the competitiveness of the conference can put a damper on any coach’s season.
That isn’t to say that the Mavs don’t have what it takes to make a run in the competitive RMAC. The team has just completed its first two tournaments of the season, competing in the University of Wyoming Cowboy Open and the Northern Colorado Open. The early returns have several Mesa wrestlers looking like they might be able to have a great shot at making Nationals. This includes Dylan Granard, who finished 4th in the amateur division in Wyoming and 4th overall at UNC, as well as Shane Miller who took 2nd in 197 pound weight class at the UNC Open.
Coach Pipher will be opening up the dual season for the Mavs on December 2nd against Western State to begin one of the toughest and longest dual schedules in the 5-year history of the program. The Mavs will have a total of 8 duals against teams that are currently ranked in the top 20, and 17 total duals on the schedule lasting until February. While many people would look at this as a death sentence, it really is just an opportunity to show the rest of the country what kind of team has been building itself deep in the bowels of Brownson Arena.
The Mavericks, while not looking great in their return to the mats in 2006, have been making great strides towards becoming one of the better teams in the RMAC in terms of wrestling. This is a trend that doesn’t seem like it is going to stop after the early portion of this season. The Mavs are going to have a tough road this year to make it to the top of the conference, but chances are that at the end of the season, we will be looking at Mesa State as one of the top five teams in the RMAC.

cburggra@mesastate.edu