Bundled up for the winter cold, Nic Urbach would go out to the garage at his home and do pull-ups until his arms gave out.

Extreme measures for a sixth grader? Maybe. But five years later, it’s hard to argue with the results.

With the Class 3A West Regional and state tournaments still remaining in his junior campaign, Urbach, Powell High School’s 126-pound state wrestling champion a season ago, has already surpassed 100 combined pins and technical falls. He may owe a chunk of that success to his time on the pull-up bar.

“I remember in sixth grade, we had a talk, and I said ‘If you ever want to be good at this you have to put extra time in, you simply have to do it, so you decide,’” said his father and head coach, Nate Urbach. “Nic decided he wanted to be good, so he started doing pull-ups. And before we found a bar for inside the house, he was doing pull-ups in the winter outside in the garage. He put his coat on and his gloves and went out there and would just do pull-ups until he got enough.”

The reason for the pull-ups was simple: Nic Urbach had become enamored with the crossface cradle pin maneuver, and if he was going to use it, he was going to perfect it.

“I’ve been using it since I was little, but I don’t remember who taught me. It was just a move I learned and one tournament I just started using it,” Urbach recalled. “But I wasn’t very good at it at first, and the first couple of times I failed trying to use it on people and ended up on my back.”

To improve, Urbach began building upper body strength with the barrage of pull-ups, boosting his power and endurance when locking opponents in his grasp. Now, instead of being flipped on his back, Urbach is able to hold on longer when he has opponents on theirs.

Initially, the elder Urbach wasn’t a fan of his son’s love-affair with the cradle maneuver, Nic Urbach said, but over time, he and the move earned his dad’s blessing.

“You teach what you’re good at, so I always taught him arm bars and things like that,” said Nate Urbach, who is now in his 11th year as PHS’ wrestling coach. “But that was never his cup of tea.”

Instead, the younger Urbach wanted to put his lanky frame to good use. Urbach is only 5-8, and this year is wrestling at 138 pounds (ranked No. 1 by Wyowrestling.com). But with long arms and legs, he has found a way to be dangerous with his limbs.

Sporting a 40-5 record, Urbach, as he’s done in match after match after match since seventh grade, has used his crossface cradle early and often this season. Pins and technical falls have accounted for 31 of those victories, and 102 of his 127 career varsity wins.

“It still works. I’ve never had a reason to give it up,” Urbach said. “I wrestle some new opponents who haven’t seen my cradle yet, but most people around the state know about it and it still continues to work. And as long as it continues to work I’ll continue to use it.”

What’s interesting about Urbach’s dedication to the cradle is that opponents and opposing coaches often know it’s coming, but still can’t stop it. If Urbach fails to lock in the cradle and end a match early, he’ll continue to wear down his foe until an opening presents itself.

“Nic stays with it, he doesn’t go to something else,” Nate Urbach said. “He’ll stay with it for the entire match. He forces you to move, and when you move, he’s usually right there with the cradle.”

Nic Urbach reached the pin/tech fall century mark Saturday at the Ron Thon tournament in Riverton. He collected four pins on his way to a Ron Thon title, but it was his quarterfinal fall over Cheyenne South’s Cole Kinnison that secured the feat.

And again, his opponents likely knew what was coming.

“It’s pretty funny,” said Urbach’s best friend, junior teammate and two-time state champion Kye Catlin. “You always know it’s coming, and you hear coaches yelling, but nobody’s going to stop it.

“I don’t understand how they can’t figure out how to stop it,” Catlin pondered. “He’s wrestled a few guys three times and put them in the cradle about 15 times over the course of three matches. It’s funny.”

Nate Urbach understands the humor his other wrestlers see in the ease in which his son executes the cradle, but he also recognizes a need for the 17-year-old to add to his arsenal.

“You appreciate [the cradle], and maybe you shake your head and say ‘Geez, that’s pretty neat to see that,’” the coach said. “But the thing for me is I know there are guys out there that can stop it, and Nic’s got to be prepared for those guys. It can’t be a situation where if he goes in and can’t get the cradle, the match is over. He still has to find other ways to be successful.”

Luckily for Urbach, and more importantly his son, the youngster is already aware of his need to get better. And much like his ability to sniff out openings for his cradle, Urbach is already thinking ahead.

“Especially on top, [being one dimensional] does scare me, but that’s why I have to get better on bottom,” he said. “But if I don’t get taken down I don’t have to worry about people being on top. But if I’m on bottom, and I escape, I don’t have to worry about it either.”

And when he does escape, it’s back to the “basics.”

“The crossface cradle is my main move,” Urbach said. “I’m always ready to use it.”

PHS takes down Cody in competitive match, prepares for regional meet

CODY — Nic Urbach’s close call in the 145-pound match Tuesday perfectly summed up the Powell High School-Cody High School wrestling dual in Cody.

When the Broncs had PHS on the ropes, the Panthers recovered and found a way to win. Powell did so in the form of a 40-30 victory on Cody’s Senior Night.

Prior to Tuesday's matches, PHS head coach Nate Urbach said he expected the dual to be a tough one. But with the meet beginning at the 132-pound division, PHS rolled as defending Class 3A state champion Chance Karst earned a 16-1 technical fall and 138-pounder Colton Parham followed suit with a 15-0 tech fall.

Then came Nic Urbach’s near-disaster.

“It was my fault,” he admitted after the match. “I don’t know what I was doing.”

With a 40-5 record this season, Urbach hasn’t had many of those moments. But against Cody’s Tyler Vaughn, the No. 1-ranked Urbach found himself in trouble when he overshot an attempt at a suicide cradle and ended up on his back. Vaughn reacted quickly and reversed Urbach into a pinning maneuver of his own.

“It was definitely scary,” Urbach said of the near upset.

It was a near only because Urbach did what he’s rarely had to do this season: fight off his back, get back onto his stomach and back into control. After accomplishing that, he eventually reversed Vaughn into a crossface cradle for a pin in the match’s final seconds.

“That’s the thing you’ve got to understand sometimes in wrestling — sometimes things don’t work out perfectly,” PHS head coach Nate Urbach said of his son’s nail-biter win. “You’ve still got to have a plan and some intestinal fortitude, as my dad would say, to get back up. And Nic did that, he got right back up on the horse, ran the cradle again and got the pin.”

Vaughn’s near miss on an upset seemed to inspire the Broncs, who began climbing out of a 16-0 hole one match later.

No. 4-ranked Bailey Atkinson, a Panther senior, was caught off guard by Cody freshman Dan Beaudrie in the dual’s 152-pound match. Beaudrie was ahead 4-0 early after a takedown and nearfall, and led Atkinson 5-3 midway through the third period. But Beaudrie wasn’t after a decision, and proved that by pinning Atkinson with 1:11 left in the bout.

Defending 160-pound state champion John Beaudrie then pulled his team within 16-12 with a first-round pin of PHS junior Tucker Darrah.

“We knew it was going to be a battle,” coach Urbach said. “Cody has a lot of tough kids and we knew we were going to have to wrestle hard and be at our best tonight.”

One Panther who has been at his best seemingly all season is Jake Davis, and the 170-pounder continued his trek toward an elusive state title with another impressive victory against CHS’ Dallin Jones. Davis recorded a slew of takedowns before finally pinning Jones in 3:34 to give the Panthers some breathing room at 22-12.

One match later, PHS sophomore Ty Dearcorn turned in one of the more gutsy victories of the night to keep momentum in his team’s favor. Against Cody senior Ben Flickinger, Dearcorn was nursing a 4-3 lead after being taken down by his opponent with just 1:17 left in the match.

Flickinger then locked his hands underneath Dearcorn’s body in an attempt to turn him over for a pin, but the sophomore refused to oblige, and a stalemate was called by the referee. Flickinger deferred his top position and surrendered a point to Dearcorn to return to the neutral position. The decision proved costly for the Broncs, as Dearcorn recorded a takedown and a nearfall in the final seconds to secure a 9-3 decision.

“I was glad when I won that one,” Dearcorn said. “I knew it was going to be a real tough match, he’s a good kid ... he was real strong on top and his cradle put me in trouble. And when he locked in underneath me, I knew I was in trouble, so I just fought as hard as I could.”

Cody continued to make things interesting when Skyler Landerman picked up six points with a 47-second pin of PHS sophomore Eli Briggs at 195 pounds. Panther sophomore Zach Easum responded with a 50-second pin of Carsen Canfield at 220 that gave PHS a 31-18 advantage, and 285-pounder Riley Stringer padded the lead with a pin of Cap McClure in 1:49.

Nate Urbach’s usual 106-pounder, Noah Wozney, bumped up to 113 Tuesday, giving the Broncs a six-point forfeit victory in that slot that cut the PHS lead to 37-24. But Wozney rewarded Urbach’s brave move with a hard-fought win over Wyatt Guty.

Guty had defeated Wozney in their previous two meetings at the Powell Invite in December, but couldn’t finish the hat trick at home. Wozney scored a takedown for a 2-0 lead in the first period, and that score held until the third, when he scored another takedown and a near fall in the bout’s final minute to earn a 6-0 decision.

“It was nice to get a little bit of redemption, and it feels good moving forward knowing I can beat him,” Wozney said of the win. “There’s a chance we could meet again at regionals, so this gives me the confidence I need if we do meet again.”

Wozney’s victory was also key, as it eliminated Cody’s chances of victory. The Broncs won the final two matches of the night by decision.

PHS’ regular season is now over, and the Panthers will have more than a week to prepare for the Class 3A West Regional Tournament on Feb. 20-21 in Lovell.

“It’s time to get excited,” coach Urbach said. “It’s definitely an exciting time for the kids and us coaches, and you finally get a chance to see all of your guys’ hard work pay off.

“This is what the kids have been wrestling for and working toward all year, and now the matches really matter, so it’s go time for sure.” he said.