Last week the University of Wyoming wrestling team wrestled among the best in the U.S. at the NCAA championships in St. Louis.
Despite the Wyoming wrestling team qualifying four wrestlers for the tournament, head wrestling coach Mark Branch failed to bring back any All Americans.
“It was a tough day and we knew coming in that there was a tough road ahead of us,” coach Branch said. “You see a lot of things fall into place for people and we just didn’t have that, but you really just have to go out and make something happen in a tournament like this.”
The wrestler who came out with the most wins from the tournament was Wyoming’s senior Shane Woods. Woods started off the tournament with a close win against Jared Haught of Virginia Tech, 4-2. In the championship second round Woods lost to No. 4 Kyle Snyder of Ohio State 14-5. Although coming off of a hard loss, Woods was able to embrace the grind and come back with two commanding wins. First, Woods beat No.14 Phil Wellington of Ohio 12-5. In the consolation third round Woods won by a major decision against Cody Crawford 12-1. Unfortunately, in the Consolation fourth round Woods met his demise against one of the nation’s best, No. 2 Morgan McIntosh, 8-3. With this loss Shane Woods ended his wrestling career with 101 wins.
Wyoming’s highest ranked wrestler Tyler Cox at No. 8 ended the tournament at 1-2. In the Championship first round Cox was just nearly over taken by Illinois’ Jesse Delgado 3-2. After getting bumped into the consolation bracket Cox beat No. 9 Dylan Peters of Northern Iowa 8-5. Although coming off a great win in the consolation first round, Tyler Cox lost a tough match against No. 10 Ronnie Rios 3-1 in sudden death overtime. Cox ended his career with 112 wins and was a 2013 All-American.
Dakota Friesth had a similar fate as Tyler Cox with a tournament record of 1-2. In the first round Friesth lost to No. 6 Taylor Walsh of Indiana 6-5. Friesth came back with guns blazing in the consolation first round and took down No. 11 Tristen Warner of Old Dominion 3-2.
Friesth’s run came to an end when No. 12 Dylan Palacio outmatched him to a score of 8-6. With this loss Dakota Friesth ended his career with 91 wins and a two time NCAA qualifier. Wyoming’s No. 14 seed Andy McMulley came out strong with a win against Jordan Staudenmayer of North Carolina 9-4. Unfortunately, McMulley went two and out after his win with losses against No. 3 Mike Evens 3-0 and No. 4 John Eblen 8-0. McMulley ended his career with 104 wins and a two-time NCAA qualifier.
Although the Pokes had some tough losses Mike Branch still had a positive outlook on the concluding season.
“You live and you learn and it has been a great season and this group has been a tremendous senior class for us,” Branch said. “We came close, but you want to get home with All-Americans. It gives me a lot of motivation to improve the program and see where we can get better and improve the program between now and next season.”
