GUNNISON, Colo.  Pack the House Night! brought in a packed house Thursday at Paul Wright Gym, and the vocal home crowd was rewarded with a 27-9 Western Colorado non-conference wrestling win over visiting and No. 10 Colorado Mesa University.

The No. 18 Mountaineers built a 15-0 lead in the early matches and never looked back.

JUST THE FACTS (MAD) JACK
Final score: Western def. Colorado Mesa, 27-9
Records: Western 1-1, Colorado Mesa 1-2
Location: Paul Wright Gym, Gunnison, Colo.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Patrick Allis, No. 9 in the NWCA preseason rankings, got the crowd into the match with the opening bout at 125 pounds, breaking out to an 8-2 advantage after only one period. Allis would go on to score a 15-6 major decision that put Western ahead on the scoreboard, 4-0.
• Alex Alvarez at 133 and Dean Noble at 141 added to the team total with 4-2 and 9-3 decisions, respectively.
• The crowd was whipped into a frenzy with Jason Hanenberg's bout at 149. Also ranked ninth in the NWCA lists, Hanenberg recorded two near falls during an opening two-period span that concluded with a 13-2 lead. Going after more than just a major, Hanenberg registered an early takedown, allowed an escape, repeated that, that finished off the technical fall, 19-4, with a match-ending takedown.
• Trailing 15-0 in the match, Mesa finally got on the board with a narrow 3-2 decision at 157, then added three more points in a bone-rattling 15-13 decision by Augustus Dalton over Western's Hunter Mullin.
• Those six points were immediately negated in the next bout, though, as Cole Hernandez earned a pin at the 5:18 mark to lift Western to a 21-6 lead, an advantage that was extended with Cole Gray's last seconds reversal for a 6-4 win at 184.
• Mesa was able to scratch out three more points at 197, only to surrender them right back at 285 with Zachary Schraeder's literal last-second win. He and CMU's Ruben Samuelson were tied at 2-2 nearing the third-period horn when Samuelson was pointed with his second stall warning of the period to elevate Schraeder to the 3-2 win.

NEXT UP
Western's redshirts and reserves will compete on Saturday at the Doug Moses Open at New Mexico Highlands University, while the rest of the Mountaineers travel to Chadron, Nebraska, for the Chadron Tri-Duals where Western will square off with the host Eagles, No. 2 St. Cloud State (Minn.) and No. 5 Augustana (S.D.).