LARAMIE, Wyo. (March 13, 2017) - With the Big 12 Championships now in the rear-view mirror, a group of five University of Wyoming wrestlers will challenge the nation’s best this week in St. Louis, Mo., at the Scottrade Center for the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships. Redshirt sophomore Branson Ashworth, junior Archie Colgan and senior Cole Mendenhall will each be making their first NCAA postseason appearance, as it will be the second trip each for senior Drew Templeman and junior Bryce Meredith. Action for the NCAA Championships opens on Thursday morning at 10 a.m. MT and runs through Saturday evening.
It will mark the 24th time in program history that Wyoming will send at least five wrestlers to the national tournament. It is also the first time since the NCAA changed the weight classes in 1999 that four Cowboys have earned seeds heading into the championships. UW finished 18th at last year’s NCAA Championships as Meredith, Templeman and Tanner Harms represented the Brown and Gold at Madison Square Garden.
The morning sessions for each day of the championships are scheduled to air live on ESPNU, while all the evening sessions will be covered on ESPN. ESPN3 will stream each match on every mat throughout the championship.
NCAA Championship Rundown
UW will send five wrestlers to the NCAA Championships this weekend in The Show-Me State. Four of the five Cowboys received seeds to this season’s championships.
125 Pounds
No. 15 Drew Templeman v. Conor Youtsey (Michigan)
Templeman (19-7) will enter his second and final NCAA tournament after a third-place finish at the Big 12 Championship last weekend and will face Conor Youtsey of Michigan. Templeman went 1-2 at last year’s Big Dance in New York. Youtsey is a two-time All-American and rejoined the Wolverine wrestling program in January. The fifth-year senior is 6-6 on the season and finished in fifth-place at this year’s Big Ten conference tournament.
141 Pounds
No. 10 Bryce Meredith v. Mike Longo (Oklahoma)
Meredith (28-6) heads to his second NCAA Wrestling Championships as he earned the No. 10 seed at 141-pounds. The Cheyenne native took second at the Big 12 Championships after a 10-7 decision loss to defending national champion, Dean Heil of Oklahoma State. The junior will face Mike Longo (19-8) from Oklahoma in the opening round. Longo secured a third-place finish in Tulsa last weekend. Meredith has won both matches between the two wrestlers this season, including a pin in Norman on Feb. 10. Meredith was placed as the No. 14 seed a year ago before going 4-1 at the tournament and earning All-American honors with a runner-up finish.
149 Pounds
Cole Mendenhall v. No. 2 Anthony Collica (Oklahoma State)
After a third-place finish at the Big 12 tournament, Mendenhall will enter the national tournament as the lone unseeded Cowboy. Mendenhall (29-8) will man the 149-pound weight class for UW and will face No. 2 Anthony Collica (20-2) of Oklahoma State in the opening round. Collica, a 2016 All-American, earned his fourth career Big 12 Championship title last weekend in Tulsa.
157 Pounds
No. 15 Archie Colgan v. Chase Delande (Edinboro)
Colgan (34-8) was selected as an at-large bid for the tournament and was then awarded the No. 15 seed at 157-pounds. Colgan earned a fifth-place finish at Big 12s and will see Edinboro’s Chase Delande (21-16) to open Nationals. Delande will be making his first appearance to the Big Dance after he earned second place at the EWL Championships this past weekend.
165 Pounds
No. 14 Branson Ashworth v. Brian Hamann (North Carolina State)
Ashworth is the youngest of the Cowboys that will be making the trip. He is seeded at No. 14 for the tournament after a fifth-place finish at the Big 12 tournament. He holds a 35-7 overall record for the Brown and Gold this season and will face Brian Hamann of North Carolina State in the opening round on Thursday. Hamann (20-10) will be also making his first trip to Nationals. He fell in the ACC Championship en route to the automatic bid.
He Said It
“The goal is always to take ten guys to the national tournament,” head coach Mark Branch said. “It is great to see a bigger group going this year. Although our dual team struggled at times throughout the year, it shows we do in fact have a strong group of individuals.”
“At this point we all know the work that we have done since August,” Branch added. “We have recently done more preventative things to make sure we are 100% healthy. We’ve had about week or so to train and remain healthy. Ultimately, we are going to lean on what we did all year long, not just at the Big 12s.”
“The seeding was about what I was expecting,” Branch added. “Cole (Mendenhall) very well could have been in there as well. He is wrestling great right now. We all know that the seeding doesn’t mean much but these guys have certainly earned it. All 33 guys in each bracket are very capable of knocking off anyone. We know to take it one match at a time. It always helps to go out there and get that first match out of the way, hopefully it comes in a win to help us build our confidence and move on to the next match.”
