By Patrick Carey
Playing a sport can be difficult, intimidating and just rough at times for any freshman who competes in wrestling at the collegiate level.
For CSU-Pueblo freshman wrestler Jake Snider, it’s none of that when he goes out there and wrestles. He looks calm and focused every time he steps on the mat.
So when Snider was asked to move up a weight class from 141-pounds to 149-pounds, it wasn’t a big deal. Snider was asked to do that when there was an injury on the CSU-Pueblo wrestling team at the 149-pound weight class. Once Snider moved up the weight class he found out that he would be wrestling his older brother Jesse Snider who wrestles for the Colorado School of Mines.
“It’s difficult, I feel conflicted wrestling him. I’m not as physical with him as I am with other opponents” Snider said when asked about the match.
Snider did wrestle his brother Friday night as CSU-Pueblo visited Colorado School of Mines for a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference dual. Snider’s older brother gained the upper hand in the match winning 12-5.
The older Snider came out strong early scoring a takedown on the younger brother Jesse in the opening minute and then caught him on his back for three near fall points. After the first period Snider was down 5-1 and spent the rest of the match trying to catch up.
In the second period Jake tried coming back securing a takedown at the end of the period and riding him out, cutting the score down to 6-3 going into the third period that would be the closest Jake would come to beating his brother who scored two more takedowns to secure the win.
Sniders’ brother, who wrestles for the Colorado School of Mines, is no slouch. He is a NCAA Division-II national qualifier and has been nationally-ranked throughout his collegiate career.
“I feel more confident if I wrestle him again I know what he is going to do in the match” Snider said. There is the possibility Snider could see his brother again at the conference tournament Feb. 26 at San Francisco State University.
In wrestling it is very uncommon for two brothers to face each other competitively. Throughout collegiate wrestling there have been well-known brother duos but rarely do brothers ever compete against each other.
Freshman Jake Snider is a four time state champion from Ponderosa High School located in Parker, Colorado. He was highly recruited out of high school, he was recruited by Division-I powerhouses such as Arizona State and Wyoming but chose to stay close to home and wrestle for CSU-Pueblo.
