The Utah Valley wrestling team finished second in a three-team round robin tournament on Jan. 23 against the Wyoming Cowboys and the No. 9 Arizona State Sun Devils.
The Cowboys came out on top with a total of 55 team points, while the Wolverines finished with 50 points. The Sun Devils — who were only able to send two wrestlers to the event due to contact tracing — finished with four points.
UVU came into the meet ranked No. 25 nationally by Intermat.com, with two wrestlers ranked nationally in their respective weight classes — junior Taylor LaMont ranked No. 7 in the 125-lb. weight class and senior Demetrius Romero ranked No. 5 in the 174-lb. weight class.
LaMont got the meet kicked off with a 20-4 win over Wyoming’s Darrick Stacey, and would go on to win his final bout 8-1 against the Cowboy’s Brendan Garcia.
Romero dominated his first two opponents, winning 14-4 and 19-3 in his first two matches, before squeaking out a 5-3 victory in his final bout over Wyoming’s Hayden Hastings.
The match of the day was between UVU’s sophomore Chase Trussell and ASU’s Cohlton Schultz — who came into the meet ranked No. 10 in the heavyweight class. Trussell pushed Schultz to six overtimes before finally succumbing by a score of 2-1.
While the Wolverines weren’t able to come out with the team victory, they are showing promising growth in key areas. The team looks like they are poised for much success in the coming years.
Following a week off, UVU’s next meet will be on Sunday, Feb. 7 in Corvallis, Oregon, where the Wolverines will face off with Oregon State, No. 21 Stanford and CSU-Bakersfield.
