Five Cowboy Wrestlers Earn Top 6 Finish at U23/UWW Junior Nationals

From the desk of Kevin DeVries/Wyoming Athletic Department

Photo by Ted Brummond/Wyoming Photo services

OMAHA – Five Wyoming Cowboys, three in Greco-Roman and two in freestyle, earned top six finishes this weekend as the Pokes wrestled in a very competitive field at the U23 and UWW Junior Nationals.

The tournament began on Friday with the Greco-Roman portion of the competition, highlighted by Sophomore Brendon Garcia who started strong in the U23 tournament picking up back to back technical falls (10-2, 12-4) to advance to the finals. Garcia ended up finishing in second place.

On the UWW Junior side, Freshmen Guillermo Escobedo and Brett McIntosh turned in solid performances. Escobedo posted two shutout victories (9-0, 5-0) before falling in the semifinals. Escobedo had two tech. falls in a row in the consolation bracket to finish third. McIntosh wrestled his way back into fifth place match after falling in the quarterfinals. In the Fifth-place match, McIntosh outlasted his opponent 8-6 to take fifth place.

On Saturday, the freestyle tournaments got underway. Senior Jaron Jensen opened up his U23 tournament 2-0 and was the only Cowboy to advance to the quarterfinals. After losing in the quarters, Jensen battled his way back into the consolation semi-finals before finishing sixth.

Fellow Senior Brian Andrews had a very gritty performance over the weekend. After losing an opening round matchup to the eventual champion, Youssif Hemida,  Andrews rattled off six straight victories in the consolation bracket to make it to the consolation semifinals. Andrews capped off the weekend with a sixth-place finish.