Wyoming's Colgan, Meredith win Big 12 wrestling titles

UW senior Bryce Meredith became the program’s first Big 12 wrestling champion with a 6-5 victory over Oklahoma State’s Dean Heil at 141 pounds at the Big 12 Championships at BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

And classmate Archie Coglan followed suit with a 4-3 win over North Dakota State’s Chad Ream at 157 pounds, giving the Cowboys two conference champions.

UW placed five other wrestlers in the top five to score 82.5 points to finish fourth, the highest team finish in the Big 12 tournament in its three seasons as a member. The Cowboys were fifth the previous two seasons.

Oklahoma State won its sixth consecutive Big 12 title with 137 points. Big 12 newcomer Northern Iowa was second at 96.5 and South Dakota State in third with 94 points. Fresno State, also in its first Big 12 season, was 11th (26.5).

Redshirt junior Branson Ashworth (165) and redshirt freshman Montorie Bridges (133) placed third, redshirt freshman Sam Turner (149) was fourth and redshirt senior Chaz Polson (184) was fifth.

Meredith, Colgan, Ashworth, Bridges and Turner all earned automatic bids to the NCAA championships in two weeks with their finishes. Polson finished one spot out of an automatic qualifier, but could earn at-large bid which will be announced the NCAA on Tuesday.

Meredith, a Cheyenne Central graduate, faced Heil in the 141 final for the second straight season.

As all the matches between the two have been lately, it was a rather low-scoring affair.

Meredith recorded an escape and takedown in the first period for a 3-2 lead.

Tied 3-3 after two periods, Meredith picked up an early escape for a 4-3 lead just seconds into the final period. Then Meredith caught Heil with a takedown with 50 seconds left for a 6-3 lead and hung on for his second straight over Heil.

Meredith, who was named the Big 12 Championship Outstanding Wrestler, will almost assuredly be the No. 1 seed for nationals.

UW’s second Big 12 individual title came in similar fashion.

Colgan and Ream wrestled a scoreless first period before Colgan was able to catch Ream on a takedown with 40 seconds left in the second period for a 2-1 lead.

Starting the third period in the down position, Colgan got a quick escape and with more than a minute of riding time, had a 4-1 lead. A Ream takedown cut the lead to 4-3 with 1:15 left. Ream elected to let Colgan escape and the

UW senior held off Ream’s takedown attempts for the title.

“Bryce and Archie made history for us,” Cowboys coach Mark Branch said in a statement. “To be the first ever Big 12 champions (for UW) is a tremendous accomplishment. It should give them a lot of confidence heading into nationals.”

Earlier on the final day, UW wrestlers went 6-2 to earn valuable team points.

At 133, Bridges topped Northern Colorado’s Rice Montoya 8-4 in the consolation semifinals before edging West Virginia’s Matt Schmidt 2-1 for third place.

Ashworth needed a grind out a 1-0 win over Oklahoma’s Dawaylon Barnes in the consolation semifinals at 165 to wrestle for third. There, he dominated Northern Colorado’s Keilan Torres 18-0 in a technical fall that lasted only 45 seconds into the second period.

At 147, Turner advanced to the third-place match with a 4-3 win over Oklahoma’s Davion Jeffries. Turner was then beaten 20-5 by Iowa State’s Jarrett Degan.

Polson lost by pin in his consolation semifinal at 184 before winning by 16-0 technical fall for fifth place.

“It was grit from our guys in the morning,” Branch said. “To have Branson and Montorie come back with third places was huge and even Chaz had a really strong finish.”

COLLEGE WRESTLING

BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIP

Final Team Results

1. Oklahoma State 137; 2. Northern Iowa 96.5; 3. South Dakota State 94; 4. Wyoming 82.5; 5. North Dakota State 57; 6. Oklahoma 52; 7. Iowa State 51; 8. Utah Valley 50.5; 9. West Virgnia 50; 10. Northern Colorado 30.5; 11. Fresno State 26.5; 12, Air Force 22.5