Wrestling wraps up season

The Mines wrestling squad took to the mat this weekend in their final team competition of the season in the RMAC championships. The two-day event also coincided with the NCAA West Regional Championships, in which several Orediggers competed for individual honors.

In the team competitions, Mines finished 10th out of 10 in the RMAC both days, posting team scores of 10.0 on Friday (well behind champion Western State’s mark of 62.5) and 12.5 on Saturday (again won by Western State, this time with an 86.5 score). These marks took CSM out of any contention for the RMAC team title.

Individually, three Mines wrestlers were able to find success in Friday’s events. Luis Gurule, Jacob Gerken, and Paul Wilson all earned bids to the next stage of the West Regional tournament on Saturday, where they were met with mixed results. Gurule defeated Erick Rangel of New Mexico Highlands, but was then bested by Skylor Davis of Simon Fraser University. Having been moved to the consolation bracket after the loss to Davis, Gurule then fell to Marc Collier of San Francisco State University, effectively eliminating him from the competition. Gerken was defeated in his first match of the tournament by Ryan Fillingame of Adams State, but then advanced far into the consolation bracket, defeating Colorado Mesa’s Daniel Salazar and CSU-Pueblo’s Jimmy Chase. However, Gerken’s great run would fall just short of the semifinals as he fell to Bradford Gerl of California Baptist. Wilson also stumbled in his opening match versus Paco Retana of Colorado Mesa, but rebounded to win in the consolation bracket against Justin Rockhill of New Mexico Highlands. But Wilson’s tournament would also come to an end before the semifinals, as he was bested by Andrew Reggi of San Francisco State.

Also competing for the Orediggers in the tournament were Robert Schultheis, Justin Ray, Austin Krajnovich, Robert Davis, Josh Brown, and Andrew Rixon. Although, some of these competitors were able to come away with victories along the way, these wrestlers saw their tournament come to a close on Friday evening.

Having completed the schedule for this season, the Mines wrestling team will begin preparations to challenge the RMAC once again come next season.