Feb. 23, 2008

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -

Complete Match Results in PDF Format

Wyoming lost their third WWC dual of the year Saturday afternoon as the Pokes fell to the Air Force Academy Falcons 21-12 on senior night at Cadet East Gym in Colorado Springs. The Cowboys slip to 2-3 in WWC action and 3-9 overall while the Falcons improved to 3-2 in the WWC and 9-9 overall.

"We didn't wrestle well tonight," UW head coach Steven Suder said. "It was their senior night, which brought in a bigger crowd and a little bit more of a rowdy atmosphere than we are used to for a dual. We just didn't have a good night."

The dual featured Wyoming and Air Force trading victories from the 125 pound weight class to the 174 pound match making the dual very close. Wyoming's Cory VomBaur (133) earned his 20th win of the season by defeating Samuel Shepprad 6-5 and Cole Dallaserra (149) picked up his 11th win of the season by defeating Chris Szabolcs 6-0.

UW junior Eric Coxbill (165) continued his dominance as he beat Stephen Crozier 6-5 to earn his team leading 23rd victory of the season.

Wyoming's match of the night belonged to senior Jason Still (Hwt.) and Air Force's Anthony Stegeman. Both wrestlers scored an escape in regulation but neither wrestler cold gain the upper hand. After a scoreless sudden victory period, Still was able to score an escape and ride out Stegeman in the tiebreaker to earn the win 2-1.

"Jason's win helped give our team a lift even though we were unable to win the dual, we were able to take some positives from the match," Suder said with a smile.

Wyoming junior Mikel Hoopes (184) was back in the lineup after missing the last three weeks and wrestled very tough but was unable to get the win against Jacob Devlin losing 8-5.

"Mikel wrestled like a dog for us and fought throughout the entire match," Suder continued. "It will be nice for him to get back into the practice room and get back into shape as we head into the last part of our season."

With a quick turnaround, Wyoming will return to the Gem City and be back in action Tuesday, Feb. 26 as they host WWC opponent Northern Colorado for senior night. The match will begin at 7 p.m. with special festivities for a memorable night for three Wyoming grapplers.

"We have been pushing the guys pretty hard these past couple of weeks in order for us to make our big push at the end," Suder said. "Some of our guys are tired and that showed tonight a bit. We have to continue to push so we can wrestle our best in March during the conference tournament. We will have to wrestle a lot better in order to beat UNC this Tuesday but we look forward to the challenge."

FINAL RESULTS: WYO 12, AFA 21

125 Zach Valdez (AF) dec. Cody Grant (UW), 7-4
133 Cory VomBaur (UW) dec. Samuel Sheppard (AF), 6-5
141 Jake Kriegbaum (AF) dec. Brandon Gifford (UW), 6-0
149 Cole Dallaserra (UW) dec. Chris Szabolcs (AF), 6-0
157 Tony Dorward (AF) dec. Cody Chipperfield (UW), 3-1 (SV)
165 Eric Coxbill (UW) dec. Stephen Crozier (AF), 6-5
174 Tyler French (AF) fall Kyle Morrow (UW), 3:30
184 Jacob Devlin (AF) dec. Mikel Hoopes (UW), 8-5
197 Jordan Tribble (AF) dec. Dan Barrone (UW), 3-0
HWT Jason Still (UW) dec. Anthony Stegeman (AF), 2-1 (TB-2)