Senior Staff Writer
It was almost eight months ago that former CSU Bakersfield wrestling coach Mike Mendoza took his talents to Boise State.
But today he faced a ghost from his past, as his former team with new head coach Manny Rivera faced off against his Broncos in a Pac-12 dual at Boise, Idaho.
The Roadrunners (4-3, 1-1 Pac-12) defeated the Broncos 20-14 to earn them their first dual victory at Boise State since 1993.
“We had better effort today,” said Rivera to gorunners.com. “We controlled positions better and had better results.”
The dual got going with CSUB’s redshirt-sophomore Sean Nickell beating Boise State’s Will Bardezbain at the 125-pound weight class, 8-5.
The Roadrunners kept the momentum going with three more consecutive victories.
First, sophomore Carlos Herrera beat Josh Newburg 10-5 at 133. Then, at 141, redshirt-freshman Russell Rohlfing defeated Rami Haddadin by technical fall and score of 18-1.
Redshirt-junior Coleman Hammond prevailed over Boise State’s Dakota Wall 7-3 at the 149 weight class.
The Broncos finally got on the board when Fred Green defeated redshirt-freshman CSUB’s Jacob Thalin 14-6 at 157.
It looked liked the Broncos would take the matchup at 165 as well with Demetrious Romero leading CSUB’s redshirt-freshman Lorenzo De La Riva 5-2 heading into the final round.
However, De La Riva responded with four points in the final round and took the matchup 6-5 over Romero.
BSU reeled off two consecutive victories as Austin Dewey defeated CSUB redshirt-freshman Matt Penyacsek 17-5 at 174, and BSU’s Kadyn Del Toro beat redshirt-sophomore Bryan Battisto 3-2 at 184.
CSUB secured the victory in dramatic fashion with a wrestler Mendoza once coached. Redshirt-junior Matt Williams had to go into overtime to get the win, but he defeated BSU’s Harley DiLuvo 6-4 at 194.
The dual ended with BSU’s Gabriel Gonzalez beating redshirt-freshman Dominic Balmer 7-2 at heavyweight.
The Roadrunners are scheduled to travel to Santa Maria, California next Saturday for a tri-dual at Righetti High School against Cal Poly and North Dakota State.
CSUB wrestles NDSU at 2 p.m. before competing in the Pac-12 dual against the Mustangs at 6 p.m.
