CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -

Day 1 Results  

Sophomores Archie Colgan and Bryce Meredith advanced to Saturday's quarterfinals to lead the University of Wyoming wrestling team on the opening day of the Southern Scuffle in Chattonooga, Tenn. Colgan earned a big win defeating No. 12 Dylan Cottrell of West Virginia in the round of 16.

In the team race, Wyoming is tied for eighth place out of 29 teams with 27 points. Penn State leads with 47.5 points.

"It is an extremely tough tournament and field," UW head coach Mark Branch said. "Overall we had some big wins and that is why we come here as these victories will help our guys throughout the rest of season. We took some lumps by taking some risk and made some poor decisions that costs us a few matches, but we still have several guys in contention."

Colgan opened his day with a win over unattached wrestler Alec Donovan. He followed that up with his win over No.12 Dylan Cottrell of West Virginia winning by decision 4-2. It was Colgan's first win over a ranked opponent in his career with the Cowboys.

"Archie (Colgan) wrestled smart today and he fought in tough positions and waited for his opportunity, He really put together a solid match from start to finish," Branch said.

Meredith moved to 14-1 on the season with his pair of wins on Saturday. He defeated Evan Botwin of Duke via pin 0:38 seconds into the match for his fastest pin of the season and the third-fastest pin by a Cowboy this season. In the round of 16, Meredith downed Mike Pongracz of Chattanooga by decision 6-5.

"Bryce (Meredith) was in a tough battle this evening against a tall opponent," Branch said "He had a very impressive attitude today and wrestled well against different matchups."

Juniors Drew Templeman and Benjamin Stroh finished the first day with 1-1 records after falling in the round of 16. Templeman defeated Jacob Fontanez of Army in the opening round with a pin at the 5:38 mark of the match. He then fell to Austin Assad of Michigan 10-6. Stroh defeated Andrew Garcia of Cornell by decision before falling to Casey Kent of Penn State by major decision 10-0.

Sophomore Luke Paine went 2-1 on the day winning two-straight matches after falling in his first match of the tournament. He finished his day with a 5-1 decision over Chris Pfarr of Minnesota. Fellow sophomore Kyle Pope finished his day 2-1. After falling in the opening round, he defeated Dan Smith of The Citadel by technical fall 16-1 followed by a decision to continue wrestling on Saturday.

Action at the Southern Scuffle wraps up tomorrow with a 7 a.m. MT start.

Wyoming Results

125: Drew Templeman (1-1)

133: P.T. Garcia (0-2)

141: Bryce Meredith (2-0)

149: Cole Mendenhall (1-1)

149: Jake Elliott (1-2)

157: Archie Colgan (2-0)

165: Chaz Polson (1-2)

165: Kyle Pope (2-1)

174: Benjamin Stroh (1-1)

184: Luke Paine (2-1)

197: Nate Shaw (1-2)

197: Brandon Tribble (1-2)