No. 21 WVU Treks to Colorado for Pair of Big 12 Duals
December 07, 2023 10:26 AM | Wrestling
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The No. 21 West Virginia University wrestling team travels to Colorado for Big 12 Conference matchups against Air Force on Friday, Dec. 8 at 9 p.m. ET and Northern Colorado on Sunday, Dec. 10 at 3 p.m.
Fans can catch all of this weekend's action on FloWrestling and follow along with live stats at WVUsports.com.
West Virginia (4-1, 0-1 Big 12) enters the weekend having won four of its first five duals in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 1992 and 1993.
WVU starts the weekend with its fourth meeting against Air Force (2-0, 0-0 Big 12), winning all three previous matchups by three points or fewer. The pair first met in 2018 when West Virginia overcame a 18-12 deficit to escape with a 19-18 victory based on match-point criteria.
The Mountaineers added a 20-17 win over the Falcons to close the abbreviated 2021 season, before edging them out again, 20-18, last season in Morgantown. AF heads into its first Big 12 contest undefeated after outscoring Western Colorado (27-13) and CSU Pueblo (35-3) by a 62-16 margin.
Two days later, the Gold and Blue concludes the road trip by facing another undefeated team in Northern Colorado (4-0, 0-0 Big 12) for the sixth time in program history. West Virginia has claimed five of the six total duals in the series, including a 10-point win in the main event of last year's Mountaineer Quad that saw WVU overcome a 15-0 deficit by scoring 25 unanswered points. WVU also scored a 14-point win over the then-No. 17 Bears at home midway through the abbreviated 2021 campaign. UNC comes into its Big 12 opener limiting opponents to a combined 15 points.
In the polls, nine Mountaineers remain in the seventh edition of FloWrestling's rankings – No. 25 Jett Strickenberger (125), No. 22 Jordan Titus (141), No. 28 Ty Watters (149), No. 28 Caleb Dowling (157), No. 12 Peyton Hall (165), No. 29 Brody Conley (174), No. 24 Dennis Robin (184), No. 28 Austin Cooley (197) and No. 23 Michael Wolfgram (HWT).
Air Force and Northern Colorado each earned four including No. 27 Tucker Owens (125), No. 17 Giano Petrucelli (165), No. 10 Sam Wolf (184) and No. 2 Wyatt Hendrickson (HWT) for the Falcons and No. 6 Stevo Poulin (125), No. 32 Dominick Serrano (133), No 10 Vincent Zerban (157) and No. 31 Baylor Fernandes (165) for the Bears.
For more information on the Mountaineers, visit WVUsports.com and follow WVUWrestling on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
