Cowboy wrestling wins three individual titles in first tournament.
Thomas Garvie
Tgarvie@uwyo.net
The Cowboy’s kicked off the much-anticipated wrestling season with a bang this past weekend in Greeley, Colorado, competing in the Northern Colorado Open.
The Pokes brought forth 13 wrestlers, all finishing in the top four of their respective weight classes including five fourth place finishes, three third place finishers, one runner up and most importantly three champions.
P.T. Garcia, Branson Ashworth and Sam Eagan all won championships, despite being redshirt freshmen.
“I’m proud of the guys that won,” head coach Mark Branch said.
Ashworth stood atop the podium at 149 pounds, building on a strong redshirt season in which he collected 23 wins compared to only nine losses. According to gowyo.com, among those victories were six pins and two technical falls (taking a 15 point lead causing the match to end). The former three time Utah state high-school champion hopes to continue his momentum into the thick of the season.
Another redshirt freshman to take home an individual crown over the weekend was heavyweight Sam Eagan, who bullied his way to a title with two early pins. Eagan would cap an impressive run with a hard fought overtime victory over Northern Colorado’s Jack Kuck. Certainly an exciting end to the weekend for a young wrestler coming off a lackluster redshirt season where he finished 9-10.
While Eagan’s title-winning overtime victory may have been one of the more exciting parts of the tournament, the most impressive individual title for the Pokes came from the 133-pound weight class.
P.T. Garcia put on a clinic in his four straight victories on his way to an early season title. The redshirt freshman would prove to be the cream of the 133-pound crop; his 4 wins coming by pin. The redshirt Colorado native returned to his home state in dominating fashion, leading the tournament in pins. His fastest came in only 1:17 minutes into his semifinals match.
“He was very dominant,” said Coach Branch
Garcia built on his redshirt season, in which he suffered only two losses in 17 bouts and produced seven pins. His high number of pins is a direct product of his aggressive style, one that Branch hopes to see in the rest of the team.
“We had guys standing around too much, not even taking a shot in the first period, and then we had P.T. out there pinning people.” said Branch
Branch said that Garcia was being the primary example of what aggressive wrestling should look like.
While these three wrestlers started the season strong, they were not alone. Freshman Cody Vigoren captured second place, wrestling unattached to the team at 197 pounds. In addition, Luke Paine, Chaz Polson and Cole Mendenhall would grab bronze medals.
Despite the pervasive success, coach Branch said that it wasn’t a perfect weekend.
“I’m not extremely happy with everything that happened.” Brach said, “Some guys shouldn’t have lost.”
Branch said that there is no cause for concern or panic as this week will be spent cleaning up some pervasive errors that are expected early in the season. While its difficult to derive much from an early season tournament, one thing seems clear; the Cowboys have a talented young tea
