After a year of uncertainty and seven hours of competition, Cal Poly Wrestling outperformed expectations at the Pac-12 Championships on Friday, March 6, finding success despite dealing with injuries and inexperience up and down their lineup.
Hosting their first conference championships in 21 years, the Mustangs walked away with not only three Pac-12 champions, but four spots guaranteed for the NCAA tournament.
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The Mustangs entered the title rounds with five wrestlers in championship bouts. A strong early showing from Cal Poly wasn’t a full guarantee of success, but there was some weight off the Mustangs’ shoulders. Entering the last bouts of the night, redshirt junior Koda Holeman and graduate student Andre Gonzales had already secured their spots in the NCAA Championships.
READ MORE: “Preliminary takeaways: Who stood out as Cal Poly sends five wrestlers to Pac-12 title matches”
Due to multiple high-ranked wrestlers in the 125, 149 and 197-pound weight classes, two more NCAA spots were up for grabs to start the night. By winning their first matchup, Holeman and Gonzales were already well on their way to Cleveland for NCAA Championships on March 19-21.
But more Mustangs had the chance to join them, and Cal Poly’s wrestlers provided the most entertaining action of the night on their home mat.
The two-time champ: Back like he never left
Right back onto the mat, right back to the fundamentals, right back to standing on top of the Pac-12 podium. Watching No. 22 ranked heavyweight Trevor Tinker is like watching a well-oiled machine execute a game plan to perfection.
READ MORE: “Trevor Tinker’s return to the mat was more than we could have asked for”
Cal Poly’s graduate heavyweight took down No. 1 seeded Michael Gasper with a 1-0 decision in the title bout, reclaiming his position of dominance in the Pac-12 conference and joining the squad already headed to the NCAA championships.
Wrestling with a torn labrum sustained less than three months ago, Tinker put on a clinic in his first full day back on the mat in Mott Athletics Center.
“When stuff’s not going my way, I just saw it as an opportunity,” Tinker said. “Inevitably, there’s going to be another point in my life where stuff’s not gonna go my way and I’m gonna have an obstacle like this, and I know I’ve been here, I know I can handle it.”
With that mindset, the 6-foot-7 heavyweight moved like a 157-pounder, barely touching the mat as he glided to victory over his Little Rock opponent.
“Now we get two weeks to heal up even more, and then we’re going to go out and we’re going to go all gas, and NCAA is no brakes,” Head Coach Jon Sioredas said.
Tinker went 2-2 at the NCAA championships last year, joined by three other Cal Poly representatives, but in 2026, the Mustangs have support from some new faces.
Perfect in Pac-12s
The No. 1 seed, ranked No. 16 at 184 pounds, and the favorite coming into the Pac-12 championships; Caesar Garza had been untouchable all-season in conference play, going undefeated against Pac-12 opponents and 16-2 overall in the 2025-26 season.
His streak continued with a show of dominance against TJ McDonnell, taking down the Oregon State wrestler 2-1 in a defensive masterclass. Garza earned his first Pac-12 184-pound title, Cal Poly’s first since 2013 and second all-time at his weight.
While it may have looked effortless purely based on the box score, countless hours of hard work went into the season.
“It almost makes me want to cry a little bit,” Garza said. “It’s just a lot of hard times, just grateful man.”
In a new state, with a new team, Garza found his flow and a community in San Luis Obispo.
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Part of that community seems to be facing Oregon State wrestlers in Pac-12 finals, and Garza fit right in with a few other Mustangs who took on Beavers in their second bouts of the day.
The grudge match
From high school matchups in Clovis, Calif. to Pac-12 conference rivals, No. 19 Koda Holeman facing off against No. 8 Maximo Renteria for the Pac-12 title is nothing new.
During the 2025 Pac-12 championship bout Renteria defeated Holeman in Corvallis, Ore., forcing the Mustang to find his way into the NCAA tournament through an at-large bid. This year, despite already earning his ticket into the NCAA championships earlier in the afternoon, Holeman wanted more.
“I learned a lot about what I’m good at and what he’s good at,” Holeman said. “When you wrestle someone that many times, the matches tend to get closer, get better.”
For his second trip to the national spotlight, Holeman arrives as a 125-pound Pac-12 Champion, after defeating his close rival 5-4. Cal Poly’s last conference champion at the weight dates back 20 years to program legend and two-time All-American Chad Mendes.
The drought at the sport’s lightest weight lasted almost as long as the 21 years since Cal Poly last hosted the Pac-12 championships.
With Renteria taking his home bout last year, and Holeman triumphing in Mott Athletics Center this year, the energy the crowd brought in San Luis Obispo may have turned this match in the Mustangs’ favor.
“I didn’t really know if home advantage was a thing,” Holeman said. “But I’m lowkey undefeated in Mott this year, so it might be real.”
Looking at home in green and gold
Andre Gonzales has seemed very comfortable in the Cal Poly singlet. A four-year Ohio State wrestler, the graduate came to San Luis Obispo with a wealth of experience and something to prove to the home crowd.
He did just that in his first bout of the night, earning a high-intensity 4-1 victory over No. 24 Noah Tolentino. That win set him up for a second upset of the night, as he faced No. 19 ranked, and No. 1 seeded Brock Herman in the 141-pound final.
In front of his home crowd, Gonzales fought back from a 7-0 deficit, just missing out on a final takedown in the last moments of the bout to take a 12-10 defeat.
“I knew it was gonna be fireworks, especially when he won the semis, I’m like ‘you’re going to NCAA … let’s go send it,’” Sioredas said.
He may have narrowly lost out on another impressive upset on the night and a Pac-12 conference title, but most importantly, Gonzales’ season is not over.
The 149-pounder also entered his final bout of the championships with a spot in Cleveland already locked up later this month, his first impressive victory of the day proving to be enough to earn a spot in a strong weight within the conference.
Giant killer
Redshirt freshman Anthony Berg was the final Cal Poly wrestler with a road to the championship. To get to the title bout, Berg first had to go through All-American Matty Bianchi, the No. 5 ranked 165-pounder in the nation.
“None of us are surprised, we still cheer because we love him, but yeah, he’s got a great, great future ahead of him,” Sioredas said.
The high-tension match saw challenge blocks from the Little Rock bench, but the replays proved just one thing, Berg was moving on to face Oregon State’s No. 22 ranked Matthew Olguin.
Where Berg had found himself fighting with a lead in his first matchup, he was doing the exact opposite against Olguin.
A quick 3-0 lead set the tone, and despite an amazing showing earlier in the day, Berg fell in the championship match.
The redshirt freshman has proven to be a strong point of the Mustangs young core, with multiple ranked victories on the year. He will not join his teammates for the NCAA championships, but a win against a top-five wrestler and a close title bout bode well for the future of the Mustangs’ 165-pound spot.
Meanwhile, Cal Poly’s four wrestlers confirmed for the 2026 national stage will set out for Cleveland on March 19-21 to face the best the country has to offer. The NCAA championships will mark the end of Cal Poly’s 2025-26 season, but until then, there’s plenty more action on the mat.