“The other day, I told somebody that I would buy a win,” joked Head Coach Mark Branch, “We haven’t seem the W column since November. So, it’s been a long time.”
It was the six consecutive losses that culminated to the Cowboys dominant performance in their last non-conference dual of the season.
The dual began with a Cowboys victory by redshirt freshman Tanner Miller and the night continued in a similar fashion. Juniors Shane Woods and Tyler Cox each had huge wins Friday night, Woods won his match 20-4 and Cox won his 23-8, both wins were by technical fall.
But it wasn’t just Woods and Cox who came prepared to face the Mustangs, the underclassmen also made considerable contributions on the mat. Redshirt freshmen Cole Mendenhall, Benjamin Stroh, and Miller all won their matches and helped catapult the Pokes to a much-needed victory.
“Cole stands out because he was dominant in [his] victory,” said Branch, “And Ben, continues to go out and wrestle hard.”
For Branch and the other 900 people in attendance, there was one other wrestler who stood out.
“[Leland] came out on fire tonight,” said Branch, “The last dual I called him the heartbreak kid and he didn’t break my heart tonight.”
Junior Leland Pfeifer won his heavyweight match against Spencer Empey 14-5 by major decision. This was not Pfeifer and Empey’s first meeting. The last time these two met on the mat, Empey dominated Preifer 7-3 during the Las Vegas Invitational in December.
The Cowboys wrestling team won their first duel since November with a 29-12 victory winning seven of the ten matches.
“There were some things I didn’t execute very well in Vegas [against Empey],” said Preifer, “Here, I made sure I got the takedown. This was big for my confidence. It was nice to get a good, solid win.”
The Cowboys head into their conference season with a big win under their belt and some added confidence. The Cowboys are preparing to face the University of Northern Colorado Bears in February by reorganizing and taking some time to reward the team’s effort these past few months.
“We’ll take a couple days off here, not to celebrate, but to reward a good effort and to refocus,” said Branch about the team’s break before they face the Bears, “When we come back, we’ll really hit it hard.”
