The Cowboy wrestling team has won the Western Wrestling Conference for a second consecutive year. On Sunday in Colorado Springs the Cowboys rolled in looking to avenge their dual loss to Northern Iowa two weeks ago, when the Panthers stole a close dual victory away from the Pokes and claimed the WWC regular season title. The Cowboys hit the Panthers where it hurt, by beating them in the finals of the WWC tournament. The Cowboys are sending six wrestlers to the NCAA tournament in Philadelphia, the most since 2005-06. Advancing for the Cowboys were Michael Martinez, Cole Dallaserra, Shane Onufer, Patrick Martinez, Joe LeBlanc, and LJ Helbig. LeBlanc did not win his weight class at the WWC, as he was defeated 4-3 in his finals match, but will advance to the tournament as a wild card. LeBlanc won his true second match in dominating fashion 13-4. The only other Cowboy to lose in the finals was HWT Andy McLaughlin, who was defeated 3-1. The Cowboys won the WWC tournament by six points, clinching the tournament on Patrick Martinez’s win. The Cowboys will be well represented in Philadelphia in two weeks and are looking to improve over their 33rd place finish last season in which LeBlanc was the only All-American on the team. The tournament will begin March 17th.
In basketball news the MWC released their awards today. Aubrey Vandiver of the Cowgirl basketball team was named the MWC women’s player of the year today, something a Cowgirl hasn’t done in MWC history. Vandiver was also named to the 1st All-Mountain West team, along with teammate Hilary Carlson. Jade Kennedy and Chaundra Sewell were named as Honorable Mention. On the men’s side Amath M’Baye and Desmar Jackson were named to the Honorable Mention team.
The Cowboy basketball team will play TCU in the pig tail game of the MWC tournament on Wednesday, the winner of that game will play #1 seed BYU on Thursday. The Cowgirls will have a first around bye as the #3 seed and will face the winner of San Diego State and New Mexico on Wednesday. The games will be hosted at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas.
Go Pokes!