DEL NORTE — Easily one of the most well known female wrestlers in the valley, Del Norte senior Natalie Benevides inked her services to the  Mavericks of Colorado Mesa. 

During her time at Del Norte Benevides was highly decorated earning All-Conference honors in wrestling all four years. Benevides also collected Freshman Athlete of the Year, as well as Sophomore Athlete of the Year through Del Norte School. As a wrestler the Del Norte senior was a Girls’ State Champion 2017 and 2018 as well as a boys state qualifier. But Benevides wasn’t satisfied with just the mat as she was a part of the state qualifying Del Norte Girls Soccer club that made a run in the post season last year. 

Natalie kept herself busy in the classroom as well as well as in the offseason as a   member of the Nationals Honor Society, the Honor Roll and a youth wrestling coach.

Benevides will be joining a relatively new wrestling team at Colorado Mesa as the Mavericks just picked up the program in the Fall of 2018.

Benevides discussed her academic future with the Mavericks “I’m currently undecided, but after being a coach for the youth wrestling program for a couple years now I realized that I love working with kids. It’s amazing to see that I’m not only helping them become better wrestlers on the mat, but also improving themselves as young men and women off the mat. So that along with being a teacher’s aide for my coach has made me become more interested in becoming a teacher and maybe later on in the future a coach on the side.”

Benevides also discussed the athletic perspective of attending Colorado Mesa, “I chose CMU because it’s relatively close to home and it has an amazing campus. I have met my coach and a few girls on my team and although it’ll be a big change from being on a boys team, they have made me feel welcome and I’m excited to grow and train with my future teammates” Rumble Mavs.