Nationals— here we come.

On day one of the RMAC Championships, the CMU wrestling team had one wrestler qualify not only for the finals, but the NCAA National Championships as well.

At 285 pounds, Paco Retana faced the No. 3 seed and nationally ranked Jordan Johnson of Grand Canyon University. Two rounds into the match, Retana pinned Johnson for his first pin of the night. Retana continued his pin streak facing off against No. 2 seed Kevin Barrett of Neb.-Kearney, sealing his place in the finals and at Nationals.

“It really didn’t hit me at first,” Retana said. “I didn’t know how far in the bracket I was, but knowing win or lose I would be going to Nationals was relieving.”

As competition closed on Sunday, Retana won the final with a 5-4 overtime victory over Justin Glenn from Fort Hays State.

“I felt like the crowd was completely on my side,” Retana said. “My coaches, my teammates were all on my side and it just felt awesome to get the win that way.”

Four Mavericks advanced to the finals and seven were guaranteed no worse than sixth place.

“We had to overcome some bumps in the road,” Retana said. “But we qualified more guys than we have in a while.”

In the 157-pound bracket, Jon Gappmaier advanced to the finals for the Mavericks after defeating Levi Jutila of CSU-Pueblo and Derek Koehn of Ft. Hays State.  On Sunday, Gappmaier fell to Nebraska-Kearney’s T.J. Hepburn in the 157 pound championship.

At 184 pounds, CMU’s Nick Peterson advanced to the NCAA championships and to the RMAC finals. Peterson defeated No. 2 Walker Clarke of Fort Hays State in the finals in a 4-3 decision.

Dylan Granard advanced to the 165 pound championship, defeating Western State’s Cody Frankum. In the second round, he beat Chadron’s Mikah Kadera 2-0. On Sunday, Granard was defeated by San Francisco State’s Isaiah Jimenez and finished in second place for the Mavericks.

Colorado Mesa finished in fifth place overall with 86 points.