by Matt Kennedy
Colorado Mesa University wrestling did things their way this past week as they defeated fellow RMAC rival, Western State, at the Battle at Brownson last Thursday 21-18 as it came down to the final bout of the evening.
The “main event” was the match in which determined it all for the Mavericks on Thursday and Clayton Voytilla came in clutch for his team as he defeated Western’s David Traynor in the heavyweight bout.
Head coach Chuck Pipher did predict that the meet, could come down to one or two matches but nobody was prepared for how crazy the ending would be on Thursday. The score was tied 18-18 heading into the final match and the electricity in the air was felt through the entire arena.
Colorado Mesa did fall behind early 9-0 with two losses in the first bouts but the first win of the night for the Mavericks came from the RMAC Champion at the 141 pound weight division, Daniel Salazar.
His win set the tempo for the rest of night for the Mavericks as fellow teammates Payton Tawater and Jason Buhr both picked up victories, one by first-round pin and the other by major decision.
The Mountaineers went on to win two more bouts and both teams ended up winning 5 bouts over the course of the night but because of bonus point victories, Colorado Mesa had the overall advantage.
With the single light lit over the mat and the hundreds of students on their feet for the final match, it was a perfect formula for an emotional win for the Mavericks and the best way to send them to Colorado Springs over the weekend for the RMAC championships.
Colorado Mesa finished fourth overall in Colorado Springs but both Daniel Salazar and Payton Tawater won their respective weight divisions and became the 2017 RMAC Champions.
Tawater is a redshirt freshman from Arvada, Colorado and came out like he has done all season, running through the competition like it is nothing. He defeated Kyle Fantin from CSU Pueblo to win in the finals after to beating Reis Humphrey by 6-2 decision in the semi’s.
Salazar tore through the 141 pound weight division on Saturday picking up victories over Seth Rich from Western State to make it to the finals and finally beating Cal Baptist’s Peter Cunningham with a close 5-4 decision to win the tournament.
The Mavericks had a few others come close to winning in the tournament but just came up short in the end. Austin Gaun fell to Nick Feigener in the finals by decision giving him second place honors. Bruno Nicoletti placed fourth in the 174-pound weight division after falling to Nolan Kistler from Cal Baptist.
Clayton Voytilla, who won the overtime match on Thursday against Western, won the fifth place match against Gavin Escobedo from New Mexico Highlands to finish with a 2-2 tournament record.
Coach Pipher said how his team operates in tournament style situations and believes that is where, they could succeed the most in and the RMAC Tournament was a testimony to that as they performed strongly over the weekend finishing in fourth overall.
CSU-Pueblo did take first in the tournament and Colorado Mesa will keep training as they look to regionals in a couple weeks but they take on New Mexico Highlands on Feb. 10 as well as Colorado School of Mines on Feb. 11.
