LARAMIE, Wyo. (Nov. 6,2018) – Heading into his 11
th season at the helm of the Wyoming wrestling program,
Mark Branch has experienced a decade's worth of moments since arriving in Laramie. During the offseason, GoWyo.com sat down with Branch as he counted down his top-10 favorite moments over his first 10 years leading the Cowboys. Today, we break down Nos. 9 and 10.
10. Doyle Trout's First Collegiate Match
After winning his fourth Nebraska state title in 2015,
Doyle Trout—now a junior for the Cowboys—had turned his attention towards graduating high school and preparing for his collegiate career at Wyoming the next fall; however, while driving down a country road, Trout lost control and ran into a pole. The accident resulted in him having to have his leg amputated.
Despite the setback, Branch and the Cowboy staff stood behind Trout and honored his scholarship anyways. Trout recovered and entered into the 2016 Cowboy Open to see his first action as a collegiate wrestler. After all he had been through, Trout would go on to win his first match, 6-0, over Garreth Erhardt inside the UW War Memorial Fieldhouse.
From Coach Branch
"Doyle was one of our highest-touted recruits that we had ever had in this program, and to see him suffer through the physical and emotional pain that he went through in that car accident was devastating.
"His first year here, he didn't step on the mat at all. It was a rehab process just to learn how to walk and function. Not only that, but the psychological part—he struggled emotionally and mentally trying to get through that injury. It was a process, and for him to continue on the path and say 'I want to step out and I want to continue to wrestle' (was amazing). Not only to see him get back on the mat and start practicing, but the nerves that led up to that, because I know he was even questioning whether he was going to compete and I told him 'That's silly. Get out there and do it. Go wrestle.'
"From going through the life changes he went through from the last time he went out and shook hands in a match to coming in front of our home crowd and his family and our team, and going out there to compete was enough. That was enough, we didn't need anything more than that. It brought tears to my eyes, and for him to have the will, the determination and the heart to not only go out there and compete—but to find a way to win. That was amazing.
"It was one of the most amazing things I've seen in sports. Most people probably would never have even gone out there and tried to compete after something so devastating, but he went out there and didn't even know how to wrestle. That's what was crazy was he literally had a month on the mat to learn how to wrestle and he went out there and got his hand raised.
"I think everybody that was standing around that mat that day got choked up. I was very proud that he set his goal to get back out and shake hands and wrestle, and he made that goal happen. I'm super proud of the recovery he's made physically and mentally."
9. Meredith and the Cowboys Push Oklahoma State to the Brink in Cheyenne
In one of the best duals of the 2018 season in all of college wrestling, Wyoming gave wrestling blue blood Oklahoma State all they could handle in a December shootout held in Cheyenne at historic Storey Gym.
Headlining the bill that night was the 141-pound bout between Wyoming's
Bryce Meredith and Oklahoma State's Dean Heil—a rematch of the 2016 national title match that Heil would go on to win by a narrow, 3-2 margin. This night was a different story, however, as Meredith—propelled by a wild atmosphere in his hometown—gutted his way to a 2-1 overtime victory over the two-time defending national champ who rode into the bout on a 55-match win streak.
As a team, Wyoming would split matches with Oklahoma State at five apiece, but OSU's bonus points in a couple of the matches proved to be the difference in the 20-15 battle.
Wyoming wouldn't let the match get away without a few other highlights though, as
Montorie Bridges,
Sam Turner and
Branson Ashworth each tallied wins over All-Americans while
Archie Colgan came up with a big win at 157 as well.
To begin the match, Turner earned a 4-3 decision over All-American and 10th-ranked Geo Martinez. Turner overcame a takedown in the first period and a 3-1 deficit late in the match to pick up the biggest win of his young career. Martinez scored a takedown early in the opening period, only to be followed with a Turner escape. In the final frame, Turner recorded an early escape and added a takedown with less than a minute to seal the victory.
No. 16 Colgan kept the momentum with the Brown and Gold with a 3-1 decision over Jonce Blaylock at 157. After a quiet opening period, Colgan recorded an escape and takedown in the second for a 3-0 lead. Blaylock added an escape but Colgan prevailed with the victory for the Pokes, and pushed their lead to 6-0 after two bouts.
Next up was Ashworth who came away with the 5-2 decision over No. 6 Chandler Rogers. After no scoring in the first period, Ashworth sandwiched a takedown in between two escapes from Rogers. All tied at two to begin the third, Ashworth broke out with an escape and takedown in the final period to seal it. The win was not only over the All-American Rogers, but also the first ranked win of the year for No. 15 Ashworth.
Bridges brought home the thunder in his upset over No. 3 Kaid Brock. He helped the crowd to their feet with an 11-10 decision over the All-American. Using a takedown and four-point nearfall, Bridges held an early 6-0 advantage. Up 8-5 after the first period, Brock fought his way back to tie it at eight before Bridges used an escape to close the second frame. Two more escapes from Bridges was enough as the Altus, Okla., native earned his first ranked win of the season. It also proved to be his first-career win over an opponent ranked within the top 10.
From Coach Branch
"That was one of the moments that was almost a perfect night. We sat there and we were favored to win at 157, and even then I didn't feel confident. I knew that Archie (Colgan) needed to come out and be ready because having so much history with Oklahoma State, I know that they aren't going to stick a scrub out there. Every single guy is going to be tough. Whether he's an All-American or not, he's training with national champions and All-Americans.
"You're going into that dual and you know it's a special dual because it's an outreach dual and we're going to Cheyenne. We knew we were going to have a good crowd because it was Bryce's hometown and a rematch of the 2016 NCAA Championships. We went into it just wanting to make our fans proud and not be embarrassed. We've been in some of those lopsided matches and it isn't fun, so coming out and getting the first upset with
Sam Turner sparked a lot of momentum in our guys and made them believers with him knocking off an All-American. Him being a freshman too. That really started the night for us.
"The bad thing was when the dust settled and you look back, it was bittersweet because you think 'wow', we went into that match wondering if we were going to win one match, to just letting it slip away. We were just a hair away from pulling off the upset because we had a couple of matches at 174 and 184 that I think we could've flipped our way.
It was still a very special night and definitely my most memorable outreach we've had in our state. We've had some good ones, but that all culminated with Bryce getting revenge against kind of his nemesis that he hadn't been able to knock off. (Heil) had a 55 match win streak and it was an entertaining match. As low-scoring as it was, it was such an action-packed match. To end the dual on that note, even though we walked out of there with a team loss, it left a good taste in most everybody's mouth."
