Results

PUEBLO, Colo. - Cody Thompson won the 149-pound bracket and booked his trip to nationals to lead Colorado School of Mines at the 2024 NCAA Division II Super Region VI Wrestling Championships at CSU Pueblo.

Thompson cruised to his first career regional title and NCAA Championships appearance in a 3-0 tournament, earning a fall, decision, and technical fall in the final. He led eight placewinners overall for Mines.

Mines finished fifth overall in the team standings with 87 points; Nebraska-Kearney won the team title with 143.5 followed by Chadron State, Colorado Mesa, and Western Colorado.

Thompson, the top seed at 149, started off his day with a 59-second pin of Fort Hays State's Marcell Dely, then punched his nationals ticket via a 7-3 decision over Chadron State's Torry Early in the semifinals. The final was all Thompson as he scored early and often to defeat Western Colorado's Dean Noble 19-4 in the third period.

Eight Orediggers in all reached the semifinals, but tough seeding matchups bit Mines in the end despite placing all eight wrestlers. In addition to Thompson's win, Jakob Smith (157) and Laith Ibrahim (285) were fourth-place finishers, Grayston DiBlasi (141), Tristin David (165), and Wyatt Reisz (174) won their final matches to finish fifth, and Christian Lopez (125), Mason Diel (184), and Ryan Cody (197) finished sixth.

Both Smith and Ibrahim made it to third-place bouts, with Smith ending his day 2-2 with a decision and pin before losing 8-0 in the placing round to San Francisco State's Basil Othman. Ibrahim had one of the tournament's biggest upsets, beating Chadron State's Mason Watt in sudden victory, 6-3, in the quarterfinals before losing a tight 4-3 decision in the semis to Colorado Mesa's Tyler Doyle; he wrestled back to face Simon Fraser's Taniela Feliciano-Takafua in the third-place match and lost another close battle, 11-9.

DiBlasi, David, and Reisz were all 2-2 on the day, with Diel and Cody going 1-3. Lopez was the lone Oredigger to have to wrestle a first-round bout, winning there before suffering a quarterfinal loss to top-seeded Quade Smith of Chadron State; he wrestled all the way back to the fifth-place match, ultimately finishing sixth in a six-match, 3-3 tournament. Trebor Moreno suffered an early exit with an 0-2 tournament at 133 pounds.

Thompson advances to the 2024 NCAA Division II Wrestling Championships in Wichita, Kan. on March 15-16.