Wolverines bucked by Broncos
Freshman Trevor Rupp
Kira Terry/UVU Review
The duel was set to begin with the 141-pound weight class, and senior Justin Morrill started off right where the Wolverines left off last year, beating the No. 15 ranked BSU opponent in the second round of overtime.
The win for Morrill was his third of the year over a ranked opponent, leading to a WWC Wrestler of the Week award.
“That was a really good win for Justin, with that kid being ranked as high as 15,” said Coach Greg Williams. “He really deserves an opportunity to represent a spot at nationals for our conference, but judging from the rankings they’re not recognizing it.”
Boise State would shut down the Wolverines momentum, winning the next seven weight classes with two coming by forfeit.
“They [Boise State] wanted to put us in our place and put last year behind them,” said Williams. “They advertised it as a grudge match saying, ‘come watch us beat Utah Valley,’ and they’re a tough team that we respect, but I don’t judge our performance on the final score because we had some guys really wrestle hard in some close matches.”
Junior Brad Darrington gave up a 2-point takedown with just seconds remaining on the clock, losing the match 6-4. Freshman Trevor Rupp fell on the losing side of a hard fought 3-2 match, and senior Jeb Clark fell short in his match with a score of 5-2.
It wasn’t until the 125-pound weight class that the Wolverines were able to get back on the board, as No. 13 ranked senior Ben Kjar won his match 3-2.
The final match of the night was the return of former Boise State wrester, No. 13 Flint Ray, going up against his former workout partner and the nations No. 2 ranked wrestler, Andrew Hochstrasser.
Ray would go on to be defeated for only his second defeat of the year, with his first also under the hands of Hochstrasser.
By the end of the night, the Wolverines had faced eight top-25 ranked opponents and unfortunately had to forfeit two matches, totaling a final score of 32-6 against the Broncos.