Cal Poly’s newly-established wrestling club shocked the NCWA field of competitors this past weekend by decisively capturing the California State Championships title. It was Cal Poly's debut tournament after forming its club in mid-season, and showed the Mustangs were eager to make a statement. The Mustangs bested all competition by racking up 116 team points, with Fresno State and Sacramento State earning 63 and 62 points, respectively. Among the Mustangs placers were gold medalists Jake Lilienstein (133 lbs.), Michael Klee (165), PJ Schmidt (174), Rory MacNeill (184) and Max Bossert (197) while Finn Childress (141), Matt Garcia (149), David Joyner (157), Jared Larsen (174) and Armando Lopez (235) took silver medals.

Cal Poly’s champ at 165 and president of the club, Michael Klee said, “We knew we had to go out there and wrestle our hardest. We came to this tournament to win. We are looking forward to greater challenges and competing against even stronger teams within the NCWA."

Mustangs head coach Joe Tiernan said “I would like to thank Evan Hess for coordinating and running a first class tournament. I think some of the other teams were definitely surprised by our performance as the new kids on the block. We enjoyed getting to know the other teams and coaches and look forward to continued great competition in years to come.”