Wyoming wrestling (No. 19) took a decisive victory over the Boise State Broncos on Sunday with a 37-3 win led by two pins from Benjamin Stroh and Austin Breckenridge.
“I thought the crowd was great and loud, we have been all over the state and this will stand out as one of my favorite place to come,” head coach Mark Branch said to a Wyoming Athletics press release. The match was held at the Rushmore Gymnasium in Rock Springs, Wyo.
Boise State came into the dual off of a loss to the Oregon State Beavers in Corvallis, Ore. Before the dual, Boise had lost six of their last eight duals and has an overall record of 3-9. Wyoming came into the dual having beat Oregon State in Laramie, and their overall record advanced to 10-4.
The dual started at 149, where Wyoming junior Austin Breckenridge pinned Jake Velarde and gave Wyoming a 6-0 advantage. Wyoming would then take the next three matches by decision or major decision that led to a 16-0 advantage. One of the decisions came from Rock Springs native Andy McCulley at 174 in a 2-1 score over Austin Dewey.
“Andy was wrestling a little tight tonight, but in the long run he will remember winning his 100th match in his hometown and that is a milestone that not too many wrestlers get to,” Branch said to Wyoming Athletics.
The second and final pin of the night came from No. 19 Benjamin Stroh at 1:41 against Boise State’s Holden Packard at the 184 class. This brought the overall score to 22-0 and effectively buried the Broncos. Wyoming would go on to win every match, excluding the 141 where Boise’s No. 6 Geordan Martinez beat Cole Mendenhall by a decision of 10-3, and bring the final score of the dual to 37-3.
“It was a dominating victory, but what I really like the most was wrestling a couple of seniors in [Brandon] Richardson and [Leland] Pfeifer and it was nice for both of them to get wins,” Branch said to Wyoming Athletics.
Of the nine match wins for the Cowboys, five of them were seniors. The Cowboys will wrestle their final dual of the season in Greeley, Colo. versus the Northern Colorado Bears at 2 p.m.
