LARAMIE, Wyo. (Jan. 10, 2018) -- The No. 11 University of Wyoming wrestling team will be back inside the friendly confines of the UniWyo Sports Complex on Friday evening, as the Pokes take on CSU Bakersfield at 7 p.m. MT. Wyoming will then travel to Corvallis, Ore., to face Oregon State on Sunday night. The dual against the Beavers is scheduled for 8 p.m. on Sunday.
 
Friday's dual will have live results on trackwrestling.com and live video through Flowrestling, while the contest on Sunday can be watched on the Pac-12 Network. Fans are also encouraged to follow @WyoWrestle on Twitter for updates throughout the weekend.
 
Last Time Out
Wyoming wrestling recorded wins over North Carolina, Duke, Army West Point and American on Friday to finish the UNC Duals with a perfect 4-0 record. The Pokes picked up a 21-17 win over No. 19 Tar Heels and then followed with a 34-7 drubbing of Duke on Friday morning. They added two more victories in the afternoon session with a 38-3 defeat of Army, before closing out the duals with a 28-10 win against American.
 
Senior Bryce Meredith, as well as junior Branson Ashworth and redshirt freshman Montorie Bridges each went 4-0 on Friday. Senior Archie Colgan wrestled in the first three duals, going 3-0 and earning his 100th career victory. Of Wyoming's 29 wins on Friday, 17 of them came via bonus-points.
 
Know the Competition – CSU Bakersfield & Oregon State
CSU Bakersfield:  The Roadrunners (3-5, 0-1 Pac 12) last competed in the Southern Scuffle where five placed. CSU Bakersfield went 5-7 in dual meets last year, sending five wrestlers to Nationals. All five return this year including the reigning Pac-12 125-pound champion, Sean Nickell. Russell Rohlfing (141 pounds), Coleman Hammond (149 pounds), Lorenzo De La Riva (165 pounds) and Matt Williams (197 pounds) were the four other NCAA Qualifiers and will all take to the mat on Friday.
 
Oregon State: The Beavers (2-3, 0-0 Pac 12) are 0-2 in the New Year with loses at South Dakota State and Iowa State. Defending Pac-12 Champion Cory Griego (197 pounds) is one of three Beavers who qualified for NCAA's a season ago. He is joined by Jack Hathaway (141 pounds) and Cody Crawford (285 pounds). Ronnie Bresser (125 pounds) missed a majority of last season but qualified for Nationals in 2015 and is currently ranked No. 9 according to Flowrestling.
 
In the Rankings
The Pokes put on a strong showing in Chapel Hill last week and it shows in this week's individual rankings. Meredith, who is tenth in the nation in falls, is now the No. 1 wrestler at 141 pounds in each of the Flowrestling, InterMat, Trackwrestling and The Open Mat individual rankings. He is Wyoming's first wrestler to own the No. 1 ranking at any weight since Joe LeBlanc (184 pounds) was No. 1 heading in to the NCAAs in 2011-12. Bridges (133 pounds) once again held his own against top talent and is ranked as high as No. 5 by Trackwrestling. He also owns the No. 7 spot for Flowrestling and The Open Mat rankings, as well as No. 9 for InterMat.
 
After becoming the 19th Cowboy to record at least 100 career wins, Colgan (157 pounds) sits at No. 10 by InterMat and No. 12 in the Flowrestling individual rankings. He is also No. 14 for both Trackwrestling and The Open Mat.
 
Ashworth (165 pounds) picked up four bonus-point wins last Friday. He and Colgan lead the team with 22 wins each, while he also has a team-best seven tech. falls. Ashworth holds the No. 14 spot in each individual ranking. Additionally, redshirt freshman Sam Turner (157 pounds) moved up one spot to No. 19 in the Flowrestling rankings this week.
 
For the first time this season, the Pokes jumped into the National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) poll. UW, sitting at No. 23, is just ahead of North Carolina and Northwestern, and are close behind No. 22 Purdue. The top 17 spots in this week's NWCA POLL were unchanged from a week ago. Wyoming is one of four Big 12 teams in the rankings.
 
The Brown and Gold are also No. 11 according to Flowrestling and Trackwrestling. They are No. 22 in InterMat's Tournament rankings, and No. 20 in The Open Mat Tournament rankings.  
 
He Said It
"We are happy to be back in the UniWyo," head coach Mark Branch said. "We're looking forward to getting a lot of fans and lately we've been performing well, so hopefully we can continue that in front of everyone."

"We are on a nice run right now," Branch added. "Recently, we've beat several All-Americans, and that is a big thing in our sport. We do gain momentum and also confidence from that. When you see your teammates out there knocking off top-five guys, everyone feels a little better about what we are doing."

"Both CSU Bakersfield and Oregon State are tough teams and will put up a good fight. I wasn't expecting us to dominate a couple of our duals last week but we went into each one knowing what needed to be done. On paper, these duals with CSU Bakersfield and Oregon State are very close matchups. We have to wins what we are supposed to and we also need bonus-points. It was good to see a few guys step in and come away successful on Friday. We had a couple guys with big-time wins and they continue to get better. I hope they can do that again."
 
Projected Lineup v. CSU Bakersfield & Oregon State
125: Drake Foster
133: Montorie Bridges
141: Bryce Meredith
149: Sam Turner
157: Archie Colgan/Dewey Krueger
165: Branson Ashworth
174: Kyle Pope
184: Chaz Polson/Luke Paine
197: Cody Vigoren
285: Sam Eagan/Hunter Mullins