LARAMIE, Wyo. (Nov. 2, 2019) – Four Wyoming Cowboys, three in the Elite Division and one in the Amateur Division took home Cowboy Open titles Saturday as the Pokes opened the 2019-20 season with their home tournament.
Hayden Hastings at 174, Cale Davidson at 197 and Brian Andrews at heavyweight all won crowns in the Elite bracket. Stephen Buchanan was the champion at 197 on the Amateur side. Wyoming cruised along until the championship bouts as a total of nine Cowboys made it to the final match at various weight classes, with five Pokes taking second place, while four others finished third.
"There were a few positive things today, although mostly not what we wanted to see," said Head Coach Mark Branch.
"It's also not shocking, I think this team has gone through a couple of week of imbalance and trying to figure out the direction that they want to go and so you don't expect to have picture-perfect results, especially this early in the year. We have some things we need to clean up and fix, it will be a challenge for us to build from here and there's plenty to build on."
Hastings was absolutely dominant on the day for UW, not surrendering at the open, on his way to three major decisions (10-0, 9-0 and 9-0) and a pin in the semifinals. Hastings won his bracket with a 9-0 victory over Northern Colorado's Billy Higgins.
For Davidson, he had a workmanlike day, picking up four decisions at the open. Davidson concluded his tournament with a hard-fought, 7-5 decision over UNC's Jacob Seely.
Andrews began his day with an 8-2 decision over Logan Church of Western State before edging out a 2-1 victory over Northern Colorado's Dalton Robertson. In the finals, Andrews outlasted Air Force's Kayne Hutchison, 5-0.
Buchanan's first action as a Cowboy got off to a hot start as he went 4-0 on the day. Buchanan was able to take home his Amateur Division crown behind the strength of a 7-5 win over Tucker Tomlinson of Western Wyoming.
"Today was one of those performances where you don't walk away completely satisfied, but we had some guys that did well. I saw some young guys that did well. I thought Hayden had a really good tournament. It was good to see Brian and Cale get victories, and they were hard-earned victories."
Brendon Garcia at 125 pounds and Jacob Svihel at 133 took home second-place finishes on the Amateur side. On the Elite side, Montorie Bridges (133), Jaron Jensen (149) and Tate Samuelson (184) finished runner-up.
Wyoming returns to action next weekend as it will send a select number of student-athletes to the UNC Open. While the Cowboys' first dual of the season is Nov. 16 at Air Force.
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