Leland Pfeifer was born and raised in the small town of Hulett right here in Wyoming. His father was an electrician and his mother was a teacher and the owner of a shop at Devils Tower.
The total population of Hulett is 400. When describing the town Pfeifer said, “I knew everyone at my school, and not just them but their siblings, parents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Everyone knew everyone.” He also added that “There were twenty-five students in his high school graduating class and his class was the biggest class yet.”
On being a division one wrestler Pfeifer said, “I am grateful and happy that I am able to compete at the division-I level, and still get to stay in the home state of Wyoming.”
Last season now junior Leland Pfeifer overcame a knee injury and demonstrated toughness and leadership by doing anything he could to help out his team. Originally undersized, Pfeifer moved up to the heavy weight spot in January to replace an injured teammate. He bravely went from wrestling at the undersized weight class of 184 to wrestling at the much heavier weight class of 285.
Weight classes are a straightforward concept, established to ensure fairness among competitors in wrestling. Moving up a weight class is a challenge but moving up several weight classes is a difficult task indeed. To gain the weight Pfiefer said he simply “Ate more and stopped cutting weight.”
While it can be difficult to predict how an individual will perform upon moving weight classes, Pfeifer did not disappoint. He did extremely well in the Western Wrestling Conference Championship/NCAA West Regional at the end of the season. He won two matches versus league opponents in the event, and his win in the consolation final was an integral part of UW’s fourth-straight conference title. That season he was Third Team All-WWC for the first time in his career and finished 3-11 overall.
Pfeifer says that some of his goals for this season include ranking in heavy weight at Nationals this year.
In reference to how well his team has done this season, Pfeifer said, “The season started slow but expects it to pick up with Conference and Nationals coming up.” He added that he believes the team will “do really well in both Conference and Nationals this year.”
Last season was the second year in a row; Pfeifer was honored by the Cowboys coaching staff for maintaining a grade point average above 3.5 for the season. Pfeifer is currently studying GIS, Geographic Information Science, and eventually would like to be a program engineer here in Wyoming.
Pfeifer enjoys living in Laramie even though it is a “bigger city” than what he is used to. He has become good friends with all of his teammates and says that he “loves them all.”
Coming to the University of Wyoming was something that wrestler Leland Pfeifer always dreamed of doing and is grateful for the opportunity to wrestle for the state. Upon graduating Pfeifer wants to continue his studies by going to graduate school get his masters here at the University of Wyoming.
