Cowboys finish fourth at Big 12 Championships

Mar. 8—LARAMIE — The University of Wyoming wrestling team finished in fourth place at the Big 12 championships Sunday night at BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The Cowboys tallied 105.5 points, the highest team score in program history at the Big 12 tournament. UW finished behind co-champions Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, which had 124 and Iowa State with 117.5. The fourth-place finish ties for the best finish in program history at the conference tourney.

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"I'm proud of our effort. This is the reason we are in the Big 12, to experience those big-time situations," UW coach Mark Branch said in a new release. "We got a lot of positives to build on. Those guys that got into the finals had to fight to make their way there and I'm proud of them. You want to talk about living Cowboy tough and wrestling Cowboy tough."

UW was paced by Cole Moody (165 pounds), Tate Samuelson (184), Stephen Buchanan (197) and Brian Andrews (285), all of whom advanced to the finals and finished in second place. It was the highest career finish at the league tournament for Moody, Samuelson and Buchanan. All four Cowboys earned automatic qualification to the NCAA Tournament.

Hayden Hastings (174) also earned an automatic bid to the NCAA championships after going 2-0 on the consolation side of the bracket to finish third on Sunday.

Chase Zollmann (141) and Jacob Wright (157) won their placing matches and finished fifth, the highest for either wrestler at the Big 12 championships. Jaron Jensen (149) wrapped up his tournament with sixth place for the Cowboys.

With five wrestlers qualified, the Cowboys now set their sights on the NCAA Tournament. The at-large qualifier bids will be announced on Tuesday. The NCAA championships will be March 18-20 at Enterprise Center in St. Louis.

Cowgirls soccer loses 1-0 against Lobos

The Wyoming soccer team (1-1-0) couldn't overcome a goal in the 33rd minute as it dropped a 1-0 contest against New Mexico on Sunday afternoon at Madrid Sports Complex.

"We came out a little tentative and didn't adjust with the windy conditions (Sunday)," UW coach Pete Cuadrado said in a news release. "It took us a bit to get going and (New Mexico) really ran after us. I thought in the second half when we got the wind, but we did get physical as well and matched that intensity. We did a better job for sure and had our chances at the post with having a couple of good looks.

"Against a team like (New Mexico) you aren't going to get a ton of chances. We have to be able to adjust to both halves in the conditions. More positive signs, we can hang with a team like New Mexico that is a top-half team in the league."

The Lobos started the game aggressively to push the pace and create four scoring chances in the first 10 minutes and a corner kick in the 14th minute. In the 33rd minute, a ball from the foot of Gwen Maly went off a UW defender and made its way past goalie Hannah Lee for the only score of the game. The Cowgirls struggled offensively with no shots in the first 45 minutes, while the Lobos had 11 shots on goal in the first half.

The best opportunity for the Cowgirls to score was from a free kick in the 54th minute. Junior Amber Vokoun fired it in only to have it bounce off the side post. Sophomore Maria Allen tried a shot from the rebound, which bounced high off the top of the goalpost.

New Mexico outshot UW on goal 13-3. Cowgirls goalies Lee and Alex Daws played 45 minutes each with Lee recording seven saves. Malia Vanisi was in net for UNM in her 90 minutes of action. The Cowgirls had two corner kicks to New Mexico's eight.

UW will next play on the road for the first time this season at 2 p.m. Thursday at Air Force. Because of adverse weather conditions the game was rescheduled and moved up from the original Friday game time. The Cowgirls are also scheduled to play at noon Sunday at Colorado College.