Cowboy Wrestlers Headed To Utah Valley Showdown

From the desk of Bud Denega/Wyoming Athletic Department

LARAMIE – The University of Wyoming wrestling team is looking to maintain and build on its positive momentum this week. The Cowboys travel to Utah Valley on Saturday for a dual at 6 p.m. inside Lockhart Arena. 

The Pokes are fresh off their most impressive home win of the season. They throttled Air Force, 30-14, last Friday in Laramie to improve to 4-5 on the season and 2-3 in Big 12 action. 

“We needed a dual like that,” head coach Mark Branch said. “When you look at our schedule, it has been a gauntlet of top-15 teams. Not only has the competition been unforgiving, but we have not been a very healthy team. We finally got a chance to wrestle at home in an environment where our guys felt confident, and it showed.” 

Wyoming not only won seven of the 10 bouts against the Falcons but claimed five bonus-point victories. That included one ranked win, as well, when No. 4 Jore Volk (125) defeated No. 33 Tucker Owens via decision, 11-6. 

The win moved Volk to a team-best 17-4 on the season and 7-4 versus ranked foes. He’s now as high as fourth nationally in a pair of the major polls and no worse than seventh in the other two.  

No. 19 Joey Novak (197) moved up a spot in the rankings after improving to 16-9 on the season. He’s also 6-8 on the year against ranked grapplers. 

No. 21 Gabe Willochell (149) boasted his team-high fifth fall against Air Force, moving his overall record to 13-6. No. 31 Cole Brooks (141) registered his first win since coming back from injury, vaulting to 8-3 overall on the season. 

Sloan Swan (157) carded the first dual win of his career to improve to 8-4 on the year. Garrett Ricks (133) made good use of his start, winning, which moved him to 7-6, and Quayin Short (174) recorded his first victory of the season at his new weight class, bettering his record to 7-9 on the season.  

Utah Valley is 1-2 overall and 0-2 in league duals. The Wolverines went 0-2 on their most recent road trip to Ames, falling to No. 4 Iowa State, 44-3, and No. 24 Northern Iowa, 32-6.  

Utah Valley possesses a pair of ranked wrestlers. No. 20 Evan Brockman (197) – who has lost to Novak twice this season, once in Las Vegas and the other in Coralville, Iowa – is 11-4 and No. 27 Jacob Armstrong (184) is 10-5 this season.  

“We have to continue to build our confidence and wrestle with confidence,” Branch said. “Dual wins help create a more positive atmosphere around our weekly training. Winning is fun, and we want to do more of it these next six weeks heading into postseason.” 

Following the trip to Orem, Wyoming remains on the road. The Pokes travel to Northern Colorado on Jan. 26 for a 6 p.m. dual inside Bank of Colorado Arena.