Two Cowboys Going to National Tourney
The Cowboy Wrestling team completed their regular season as they finished in ninth place at the 2010 Super Regional Four/ RMAC tournament in Alamosa, CO this past weekend beating out Colorado Scool of Mines and Mesa State College. Western State College ran away with the overall title by qualifying seven grapplers for the National tournament and three of them grabbing Champion finishes.
The Cowboys will have two wrestlers at the National Tournament, 125 pounder Seth Wright and Heavyweight Jesse Boggs. Wright grabbed a runner up title and Boggs a third place finish. The only other Cowboy to place in the tournament was 165 pounder Jarrod Purvis, in sixth place.
Purvis went into the tournament unranked. His first matchup was #4 Jordan Larsen from Colorado School of Mines. Purvis won with a 10-3 decision to move him on to the next round where he would face #5 Justin Grant from CSU-Pueblo. Purvis lost 6-3 moving him to the opposite of the bracket. Purvis then defeated Justin Dekok of Chadron State College 4-1 to further advance in the bracket. Cole Johnson of Mesa State was no challenge as Purvis defeated him 9-5. The challenge came when he faced off with #3 Blake Malloy of Fort Hays State and lost by a major decision of 11-3. Next up for the fifth and sixth place honors was Larsen once again. This time Larsen got the best as he beat Purvis 8-3 and they earned fifth and sixth places, respectively.
Making his last appearance at the RMAC tournament was senior Jesse Boggs. Boggs was seeded in third place going into the tournament. He had a bye the first round and then took on Sam Udell of Chadron State. Boggs came out with a victory as he won by a decision of 2-1. Next up for Boggs was #2 Sam Franklin of San Francisco State. Franklin pulled away with a major decision of 10-2 placing Boggs in the backside of the bracket. He didn’t let that get to him as he pinned Grand Canyon University’s Richard Hernandez at the 4:19 mark, advancing him to the third place battle. Boggs met up with CSU-Pueblo’s Patrick Carey. Boggs pulled out another pin, at 2:58, to earn the third place honors and a trip to the Division II National Tournament. This will be Boggs’ third appearance at the National Tournament for the Cowboys.
Going into the RMAC Tournament, Seth Wright was ranked #1so he had a bye in the first round. First up for the senior was Dustin Stodola of Chadron State. Wright pinned him at 2:23 to advance on to the next round where he faced Danny Luttrell of Kearny. Wright walked away with a major decision of 11-3 to put him in the Championship round where he would once again face off with Adam State’s defending 125 lb Champion, Arsenia Barksdale. The last time the two grapplers faced off Wright came away with the win and made his way into the national rankings. Barksdale was able to catch Wright and get a two point take down to put him in the victory seat and win with a 6-3 decision. Wright won second place and will now be advancing to the Division II National Tournament where he is expected to do well.
The rest of the Cowboys struggled as none of them were able to advance on a win. There were some close matches that were lost by only a point or two or in overtime.
Wright and Boggs will now be travelling to Omaha, NE on 3/12 for the NCAA Division II National Tournament in hopes of returning with hardware.
Keep checking back for updates on how your Cowboys are doing at the National Tournament.
GO COWBOYS!