March 14, 2000

LARAMIE, Wyo. -

Wyoming senior Corey Hamrick will be competing in the 2000 NCAA Wrestling Championships in St. Louis, Mo., beginning on Thursday and running through Saturday.

Hamrick will be the lone Wyoming competitor at the national tournament, which will take place at the Kiel Center. The Championships are hosted by the University of Missouri. Hamrick enters the tournament with an overall record of 24-11, including five major decisions and two technical falls. He has been nationally ranked in the 133 pound weight class all year long, reaching a high ranking of #13.

Hamrick, a Wheatland, Wyo. native, earned his bid with a third-place finish at the Western Regional, which was held March 4 in Cedar Falls, Iowa. In a very competitive weight class, Hamrick defeated #18 Andrew Peters of Air Force and #20 Chad Boudreaux of Northern Iowa. Hamrick lost to #6 Paris Ruiz 7-2 in the true second-place match and to Jose Enriquez of BYU 11-5.

In his career, Hamrick has won 85 matches in a Cowboy uniform. He has been a starter since his freshman year, when he won 20 matches. During the 1996-97 season, Hamrick was selected as an NCAA Championships alternate qualifier from the Western Athletic Conference after a second-place finish in the WAC Championships.

The first session of the NCAA Championships will take place on Thursday at 10:00 a.m. (MST). The second session will follow at 5:30 p.m. with wrestle-backs. The culmination of the event is the finals, which will take place Saturday at 5:30 p.m.