LARAMIE, Wyo. (Nov. 6,2018) – Heading into his 11th 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. 7 and 8.
No. 8: Branch Gets Win No. 100
In a 37-3 rout at Air Force last season, Branch picked up his 100th career coaching victory. With the win, he became the fourth coach in the history of Wyoming wrestling to win at least 100 duals with the program.
With his 100 wins, Branch joins the likes of former Cowboy coaches Steven Suder (127-136-2, 1989-2008), Joe Dowler (104-64-1, 1973-87), and Everett Lantz (141-73-8; 1936-43, '46-52, '53-65) in the 100-win club.
From Coach Branch:
"That wasn't anything that got mentioned at the beginning of the season or even early in the season because we had a rough dual season—my toughest dual season—the year before, so you're not predicting that kind of season where we had 13 wins.
"Towards the end of the year, somebody started talking about it and saying if you win out you're going to hit 100, and I didn't want to think about that because I needed to focus on what we were doing since we had a lot of good things happening. It was pretty cool because it wasn't something that was ever looked at until it actually crept up on you.
"I'm always going to have a great memory of walking into the locker room after that match because the team was so excited to be a part of it for me and that made me proud, because I wasn't expecting the celebration. When I walked around the corner they started dousing me with Gatorade and water, and that isn't something you see a lot in wrestling. I hadn't been a part of it.
"When people start asking about it, I look back at my former assistant coaches, I look back at the hiring process when they brought me in here, I look back at all the guys that stood in there for me—win or lose—that were there to fight for this program and the credit definitely goes to all of them. I'm just a small part that gets to enjoy it, and unfairly to some degree because a lot of people did more than me to make that happen."
No. 7: Cowboys Dominate Nebraska in Lincoln
In January of Branch's second season, the Cowboys traveled to Lincoln, Neb., for a showdown with the 25
th-ranked Cornhuskers.
The team took the fight to the home team and beat the No. 25-ranked Huskers by an impressive 19-point margin, 29-10.
Wyoming won the first five matches competed, in addition to receiving a forfeit, en route to a 26-0 lead that they would never relinquish.
No. 9-ranked Shane Onufer at 165 pounds, No. 11-ranked Michael Martinez (125) and true freshman Jimmy Belleville (157) each contributed bonus-point wins to the team score, fueling UW's big early lead. On the day, the Pokes also got victories from senior Cory VomBaur (133), sophomore Chase Smith (141) and All-American Joe LeBlanc (184).
From Coach Branch:
"We felt like they didn't show us a lot of respect. It was cool. When I became the coach here, my objective was to toughen up our schedule and wrestle against the best. You can't beat the best unless you compete against them, so we wanted to toughen that schedule up.
"I just remember when things started to go our way, as a young head coach I started to notice the effect of momentum and we talked about it with the Oklahoma State dual, where once the first one was done, everybody else started believing. We started to see it snowball, and I never really expected to run away with that dual.
"To be a part of that, when Wyoming was kind of looked down upon and Nebraska was one of the most tradition-rich programs, and to quiet their crowd (was really cool). I have a lot of really close friends in Nebraska that were at the dual, so it was very satisfying to beat a program like that and even more special to do it in front of their crowd and hear how quiet that arena got. You also got to see our guys start to believe in themselves.
" When you beat a big program that's a major name in the sport, those things really mean a lot to our fans, our alumni and our administration. It definitely makes them proud to see that in the headlines."
