Wyoming wrestling, ranked 18th in the nation, moved to 7-2 overall after a 32-10 win over the South Dakota State Jack Rabbits on Friday night.
“We need to be more aggressive. Even in some wins I wasn’t real happy,” head coach Mark Branch said in a Wyoming Athletics press release. “We saw some emotion in the second half of the dual, which is nice, and we saw some good performances.
Wyoming wrestlers Tyler Cox and Drew Templeman both started with wins for the Cowboys by decision. Cox won by majority decision, 8-0, where he never once fell during the match. The Cowboys were leading 7-0 after the two matches.
“(Templeman) has been right there, trying to break through and tonight he got a good win over a good kid,” Branch said.
South Dakota State would go on to win the next three matches all by decision and one majority decision. The majority decision came from Cody Pack of South Dakota State against Archie Colgan at the 157 class. Pack only led 3-0 after the first two periods, but after multiple takedowns he led 12-2 and scored four points for the Jack Rabbits. South Dakota State took a 10-7 lead over the Cowboys with five matches remaining.
The emotion started to show in Branch’s crew and Wyoming swept the remaining matches. Dakota Friesth of Wyoming won by a pin, over Jack Rabbit John Nething II, and gave the Cowboys six more points.
“Pins are always good, so that got me in a better mood finish with a couple pins,” Branch said.
Of the final five matches, the Cowboys recorded three pins. One from Friesth at 165 vs. Nething II, Shane Woods at 197 vs. Hunter Weddington and Tanner Harms at 285 vs. J.J. Everard. Woods’ pin came very early in the match at the 1:13 mark of the first period and gave Wyoming a 26-10 advantage at that point.
The Harms’ takedown was the final match of the evening, and 32-10 was the final total.
“If you could point to two guys, I think Tanner came out aggressive against a kid who beat him last year. He came out in the first five seconds and took a nice shot and got the takedown,” Branch said.
Wyoming moved to 3-0 in Western Wrestling Conference with the victory vs. South Dakota State. Meanwhile, the Jack Rabbits fell to 1-1 in WWC play.
