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Wyoming Wrestling Finding Their Moxy

Hey Wyoming Wrestling Fans!
It’s been a minute since I wrote about our Cowboys, but they have won four of their last five duals with some of the boys on some real winning streaks. I was concerned that more duals on the road were going to be tough and ruin confidence, however, I was proven wrong.

Wyoming won a tough dual and a come from behind dual against Oregon State. They got down 7-0 quick but Cole Brooks set the tone and wrestled the best I have seen him wrestle in some time this season. Gabe followed up with a Gabe match of going down 9-2 but winning 11-10. The OSU wrestler he defeated recently MD’d Jordan Abas from Stanford. Eddie and Joey would put the dual out of reach with a MD and Fall. OSU was chippy and sounded like their fans were the same way.

Wyoming FINALLY returned home for a dual after 76 days since hosting WWCC. I was nervous as the boys had been away so long and were facing an up-and-coming team in UVU followed by a team that beat them in Laramie previously, CBU. The team showed up for the fans and their teammates in dominant fashion. Though they got down early against UVU they fought back and again Cole Brooks set the tone and defeated Drury soundly. Sam Mitchell is starting to gain some confidence at HWT and was good to see him with a win late in the dual even though the team had it locked up before his match. CBU was the most dominant and consistent I had seen the team all year and was refreshing to see after the yo-yo national duals. Wyoming would give up ONE, you read the right, ONE takedown on the evening and they didn’t even lose that match. Their lone loss came at 33 where Stockton too neutral in the 3rd and had some good shots but came up just short.

This past week the boys were back on the road and a solid 11 bus ride to Fargo. They came out and attacked NDSU from the start and came away with a 27-12 victory. Wyoming was without Gabe Willochel this past weekend; true freshmen Avila stepped in. The SDSU dual showed that the boys are tired of traveling and was just a flat dual where guys never could get confidence going and the momentum swung heavily to SDSU early. This is evident in Joey Novak coming away with the long win in an SV win over a guy he would normally get bonus points on. As I write this the team is probably still on a bus making their way back to Laramie.

Where does the team go from here? They host WVU in Laramie next Saturday followed by a dual at AFA (Feb 14) and then hosting UNC (Feb 16). This schedule will mean the boys won’t be in a hotel again until Big 12s March 8-9. They could use big crowds to help them make the momentum push into Tulsa. They do host the Cowboy Open 23 but not sure you see a lot of the starters, minus Ricks (match count). Ricks and Mitchel continue to trend in a great direction after Ricks came out of retirement before Christmas and Sam being thrown into the starting position following an injury to Zimmer
Notes:
  • Kevin Zimmer is out for the season following surgery
  • 174 remains a battle between Davis and Ducca. Rest of the lineup appears to be set.
 

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