University of Wyoming Athletics

Pokes Finish in Fifth at Big 12 Championship, Four Advance to St. Louis

Wrestling 3/5/2017 5:53:00 PM

TULSA, Okla. (March 5, 2017) – Led by Bryce Meredith's runner-up finish at 141-pounds, the University of Wyoming wrestling team took fifth place at the 2017 Big 12 Championship in Tulsa, Okla. In the two years of being a member of the Big 12 conference, Meredith became Wyoming's second finalist at the tournament, but fell to top-ranked Dean Heil of Oklahoma State.

Meredith, Drew Templeman, Cole Mendenhall and Branson Ashworth all secured their spots for the NCAA Championship in St. Louis on March 16-18.

Oklahoma State had eight total individual champions and took home first place with 176.5 points. It was OSU's fifth-straight championship title. Oklahoma came in second (93.5) with South Dakota State (90.5) and North Dakota State (82.5) following. UW earned 71.5 points during the two-day tournament.

"It was definitely nice to see a few of our guys place this weekend," UW head coach Mark Branch said. "I thought a couple of our guys came out a little conservative this morning, but were able to turn it up a notch when they needed to. Byrce (Meredith) has seen Dean Heil a few times now and each time I think it gets to be a better match. We have talked with him protecting his legs, but we knew it would be a tough one. I think he did some good things during the match and I hope these two get a rematch, depending on how the seeding works out. Next stop is the NCAA Tournament and we all look forward to that."

In the 141-pound final, Meredith gave up two first period takedowns and countered with two escapes. Meredith started the second period on bottom and scored another escape to close Heil's lead to one, 4-3. The junior recorded a reversal in the final period before another escape. Heil took the fourth matchup between the two by a score of 10-7.

Mendenhall and Templeman each claimed a third place finish during Sunday's morning session of the Big 12 Championship. Mendenhall pinned Alex Kocer of South Dakota State en route to qualifying for his first NCAA Tournament. Templeman came away with a 4-3 decision over Christian Moody in the third-place bout. It will mark his second-consecutive trip to Nationals.

Templeman began the day with a solid 5-1 decision over Kyle Larsen of Iowa State. A takedown early against Moody set the tone in the match. Templeman also scored two escape points and was awarded a stalling point.

Mendenhall opened the second day of the tournament with an impressive major of Jerry McGinty in the consolation semifinal. Three takedowns plus a two-point nearfall was clearly more than enough for Mendenhall to move to the third-place match. The senior faced Alex Kocer in his final match of the tournament. His third-place outcome came via a pin of Kocer in the first period.

Archie Colgan faced Oklahoma's Clark Glass in the consolation semifinal at 157. The Sooner came away with a 2-0 decision win over Colgan. Colgan then redeemed himself in the fifth-place match. He handed Colton DiBlasi a 15-0 tech fall to close out the championship in fifth place at 157 for the Brown and Gold.

Like Colgan, Ashworth brought home a fifth-place finish for UW. With the place, he secured his first trip to the NCAA Tournament. Both of his matches this morning came down to the last few seconds. Ashworth came out on top in the fifth-place match against Andrew Fogarty of NDSU. Riding time was in favor of Ashworth when the match ended. In his first bout of the day, Luke Silverberg won a 4-3 decision to advance past the redshirt sophomore.

Kyle Pope took UW's third fifth-place finish of the Big 12 Championship on Sunday. Both of his matches were similar to Ashworth's regarding score. Pope dropped the consolation semifinal match early this morning before earning a 4-3 decision of Kimball Bastian for fifth-place.

Senior Brandon Tribble fought hard once again but closed out his career wearing the Brown and Gold on Sunday morning. In the consolation semifinal, Tribble fell 6-1 to Ben Tynan before falling to Quean Smith in the fifth-place match.

After all of the qualifying events have concluded, the NCAA Division I Wrestling Committee will meet in-person to select the remaining at-large qualifiers, which will be announced on March 8 at 4 p.m. MT. All weight classes for the NCAA Championship will consist of 33 wrestlers.

Wyoming's Big 12 Championship Results

125: Drew Templeman, 3-1

Templeman maj. dec. Trey Andrews (UNC), 12-2

Semi: #10 Nick Piccininni (OSU) dec. Templeman, 4-0

Consolation Semi: Templeman dec. Kyle Larsen (ISU), 5-1

Third Place: Templeman dec. Christian Moody (OU), 4-3

133: Ronnie Stevens, 0-2

Dylan Hyder (Air Force) dec. over Stevens, 10-1

Jacob Rubio (OU) dec. Stevens, 3-2

141: Bryce Meredith, 2-1

Meredith maj. dec. Joe Wheeling (WVU), 12-2

Semi: Meredith dec. Mike Longo (OU), 13-7