It was a big week for the Cowboy wrestling program.
Friday night’s landslide win against the University of Northern Colorado Bears marked head coach Mark Branch’s 60th dual win. Branch celebrated becoming the fifth head coach in Wyoming’s wrestling history to achieve the milestone by achieving his 61st victory against the Air Force Falcons on Tuesday night.
The back-to-back dual wins began with the 41-6 triumph over the program’s longest running rival: UNC. The two programs have met 78 times since the rivalry began in 1932; Friday night’s meeting resulted in Wyoming’s 21st-straight victory against the Bears.
Junior Andy McCulley was a crucial part of Wyoming’s dominating performance. McCulley returned to the starting lineup for the first time since late January. In his best win of the season, the 157-pound junior won his match 4-2 after pinning 19th ranked Mitchell Polkowske Jr.
“It’s definitely not a good feeling not wrestling in the starting line up,” McCulley said. “Especially when you know it’s your spot and you know you should be out there.”
McCulley’s pin was followed by eight consecutive Cowboy match wins, resulting in the evening’s final 41-6 score.
“I saw guys going out and taking chances, we had a lot of guys trying to go for falls and trying to go for back points,” Branch said.
McCulley was not the only Cowboy to beat a ranked appoint against the Bears. Junior Leland Pfeifer finished the night with a 2-1 win by decision Henry Chirino, who is ranked 29th in the NCAA Coaches Poll.
Adding to the many accomplishments of the night, junior Shane Woods earned his 60th career match win and redshirt freshman Gunnar Woodburn win his first career dual bout with a pin over UNC’s Sonny Espinoza.
Tuesday’s meeting against the Falcons ended in a 28-14 victory and gave the Pokes their fourth win this season and their 200th on-the-road win.
“We’ve put together a couple of wins after a rough start to our season, so it’s nice to continue to build confidence in these individuals and conference matches are very important,” Branch told gowyo.com.
McCulley had another successful match, with a pin over Air Force’s Jerry McGuinty. Redshirt freshman Cole Mendenhall was among those to win by pin on Tuesday, pinning his third straight opponent.
Seeing some pins and back points today is good,” Branch said. “That instills confidence in the guys, when they know what we’re working on in practice is translating to the mat.”
The Cowboys will be at home this Saturday against Utah State for the home finale. The dual starts at 7 p.m. in the UniWyo Sports Complex.
