PARK CITY, Kan.  Twenty-second ranked Western Colorado is poised to make some noise at the 2024 NCAA Division II Wrestling Championships as five Mountaineers – half of the lineup – qualified for the March 15-16 event.

Region champions Ryan Wilson and Cole Hernandez will be joined by Patrick Allis, Dean Noble and Cole Gray as the program seeks to equal or better last winter's fourth-place team finish and four individual All-Americans.

Leading the way for Western will be No. 3 seed Hernandez, the third-ranked wrestler at 174 pounds in the National Wrestling Coaches Association's final individual rankings, and one of last season's All-Americans. Hernandez ran his 2023-24 season record to 30-2 and his win streak to 20 with his regional title on March 2.

His last loss was by a 12-10 decision at the mid-December Midwest Classic, but he came back to win a 9-1 major decision over the same opponent in a dual meet one month later.

Western's second regional champion, Wilson, is riding a 16-match win streak, is 26-4 overall this season, and is making his first appearance at the national meet. Wrestling at 157 pounds and ranked ninth in the NWCA release, Wilson, like Hernandez, was voted a first-team All-Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference performer.

Cole Gray was also voted a first-team all-conference wrestler. Gray made it to the finals of the 184-pound bracket at regionals but a loss in the championship match ended a nine-match win streak. He had won 13 of his previous 14 matches before the regional loss and enters nationals with a 21-8 overall record this season.

A 2023 NCAA championship participant, Noble worked his way through the 149-pound bracket at regionals where he, too, made it into the championship match of the bracket but tasted defeat. The loss ended a nine-match winning streak and leaves his season record at 22-8 heading to Kansas.

Western's fifth qualifier, Allis, rallied back from a mid-season injury to earn a spot at nationals for the fourth time in his career. Each prior trip has resulted in an All-American honor.

Allis wrestled into the semifinal round at the regional, but a loss bumped him to the other side of the bracket where he would have to battle his way into the 3rd/4th-place match and win it to earn one of the three championship bids.

In a harrowing bout, Allis scored the only point of that 3rd/4th match with a second-period escape to capture a 1-0 decision and secure third place as well as another ticket to nationals.

TOURNAMENT DETAILS

• Fri., March 15
  • 10 a.m. MT | Preliminaries and First Round
  • 5 p.m. MT | Quarterfinals and first- and second-round consolations
• Sat., March 16
  • 10 a.m. MT | Semifinals, wrestle backs (seventh-, fifth-, and third-place matches)
  • 7 p.m. MT | Championship finals
• The Division II wrestling championship dates to 1963 and has been contested each year since, excluding 2020 due to COVID-19. The first and second championship titles in 1963 and 1964 were won by Western, then known as Western State, led by the legendary Tracy Borah.