Cowboy wrestlers pick up of first win at Utah Valley

* University of Wyoming Athletics media relations release

OREM, Utah -- The Wyoming Cowboy grapplers were in action Saturday night as they competed in a double header of Big 12 duals against No. 8 ranked Missouri and host school Utah Valley.

The Pokes picked up their first dual win of the season and head wrestling coach Mark Branch picked up the 128^thwin of his coaching career, making him the second-winningest coach in program history passing, Steven Suder and now sitting only behind Everett Lantz.

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“I didn’t expect this season to be this challenging but there are countless athletes and coaches and administration that share this accomplishment with me,” Branch said. “All the credit goes to the guys, especially in tonight’s win. Tonight, was a great example of the guys that stepped up to make this possible.”

In the first dual of the day the Cowboys won two matches but dropped a tough, 6-30 contest to No. 8-ranked Missouri.

In the premier match of the first dual of the day, No. 5 Stephen Buchanan took the mat against No. 4-ranked Rocky Elam.

After a scoreless first period, Buchanan notched an escape for a brief lead until Elam scored a takedown followed shortly by another escape from Buchanan to tie the match at 2-2 heading into the third period. Buchanan began the third period in the top position and went to work shutting down each of Elam’s escape attempts locking up the higher ranked wrestler and racking up the riding time.

With 13 second left in the match Buchanan shut down Elam’s final escape attempt and secured the 3-2 upset victory.

“Stephen's win was a really gutsy win and there’s no doubt that he had to dig deep for that,” Branch said. “When it got to the third period he did what he needed to do and he did it the hard way, it’s a huge win for him and we needed big win like that”

At 165 pounds, No. 20 Cole Moody also picked up a win against a Missouri wrestler as he faced off against Mitchell Bohlken. Moody scored a takedown within the first ten seconds of the match and never looked back rolling to an 8-3 victory.

In the second dual of the night the Cowboys faced off against Utah Valley, picking up their first dual win of the season in dramatic fashion with a 23-17 win over the Wolverines.

Jaron Jensen opened the dual strong for Wyoming as he faced Sam Edelblute at 149 pounds. With the score close early in the match, Jensen secured a body locked and threw Edelblute to his back to bust the match open. From there Jensen cruised to a 13-3 major decision victory.

At 157 pounds No. 13 Jacob Wright bounced back with a gutsy 4-1 win over Jaxon Garoutte shutting down his offense and controlling the match. Moody had an equally gutsy match at 165 pounds going against Danny Snediker. The two grapplers would go into the overtime tie-breaker periods where Moody scored the decisive escape to win the match 2-1.

Hayden Hastings made it four straight wins for the Pokes with an impressive win against No. 30 Kekana Fouret.

Fouret would score first and hold a lead heading into the second period, but Hastings came storming back from the top position and pinned Fouret in the second period to give Wyoming a very important bonus point win.

Another important bonus point win came for the Cowboys at 197 pounds as No. 5-ranked Stephen Buchanan took on No. 24 Evan Bockman for the second time this season.

In their first meeting, earlier in the season Buchanan came away with a major decision win over Bockman. Buchanan would turn in a repeat of their first meeting as he pushed the pace against Bockman scoring nine points in the third period to surge to a 14-4 major decision victory.

Utah Valley then won three straight matches to cut the Wyoming lead down to 20-17 with one match left to wrestle.

The final match of the dual saw Darren Green come up against Ty Smith. Both wrestlers pushed the pace with hectic exchanges as each grappler scored a takedown and two escapes. With the score tied at 4-4, the match went to overtime where Green was awarded a penalty point after Smith was penalized for grabbing his head gear, giving Green the win and securing the dual victory for Wyoming.

The Cowboys will now have the week to regroup before traveling to Greeley, Colorado on Feb. 4 to face off against their front range rivals the Northern Colorado Bears.

Wyoming Cowboys - 6 | No. 8 Missouri Tigers – 30

125 – No. 12 Noah Surtin (MIZZ) dec. Brendon Garcia (WYO) 4-0

133- Trey Crawford (MIZZ) tech. fall Kyle (WYO) 16-0

141 – No. 9 Allan Hart (MIZZ) dec. Chase Zollmann 9-2

149 – No. 17 Josh Edmond (MIZZ) dec. Jaron Jensen 3-1 (SV-1)

157 – No. 21 Jarret Jacques (MIZZ) dec. No. 13 Jacob Wright (WYO) 5-3

165 – No. 20 Cole Moody (WYO) dec. Mitchell Bohlken (MIZZ) 8-3

174 – Sean Harman (MIZZ) dec. No. 11 Hayden Hastings (WYO) 4-2

184 – No. 16 Jeremiah Kent (MIZZ) fall (2:51) Cooper Voorhees (WYO)

197 – No. 5 Stephen Buchanan dec. No. 4 Rocky Elam (MIZZ) 3-2

285 – No. 15 Zach Elam (MIZZ) major dec. Terren Swartz (WYO) 17-4

Wyoming Cowboys – 23 | Utah Valley Wolverines 17