Wishnowsky, Opeta Performed Well In Draft Combine
Mar 1, 2019, 4:10 PM | Updated: 4:25 pm
Mitch Wishnowsky #33 of the Utah Utes is congratulated by Kenric Young #24 after recovering an on-side kick against the Washington Huskies at Husky Stadium on November 18, 2017 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)
(Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The state of Utah is well represented at the 2019 NFL Draft Combine with 9 players participating, 6 from Utah and one player each from BYU, Utah State and Weber State.
Friday is the day that running backs, offensive linemen and specialists do their workouts that include the 40-yard dash, bench press, vertical jump, broad jump, three-cone drill and the 20-yard shuffle.
Iosua Opeta from Weber State and Utah Utes’ Jackson Barton competed with the best offensive linemen in the country. Mitch Wishnowsky and Matt Gay from Utah punted and kicked respectively with the top specialists.
Here is how the locals did on the first day of the Draft Combine.
Iosua Opeta
Opeta is raising his draft stock by the workout as he has impressed scouts so far. He put up 39 reps on the bench press on Thursday. The All-American followed up on Friday with a 5.02 time in the 40-yard dash, which is top five among the offensive linemen participants.
Then he jumped 33 inches in the vertical jump that ended up being the fourth best mark. In the broad jump, he recorded 112 inches, which is good for eighth in the Combine. Opeta had an 8.06 time in the three-cone drill.
In the 20-yard shuffle he finished in 4.94 seconds.
Top official 40 times for offensive linemen at #NFLCombine:
1. Erik McCoy, @AggieFootball, 4.89
2. Chris Lindstrom, @BCFootball, 4.91
3. Garrett Bradbury, @PackFootball, 4.92
4. Andre Dillard, @WSUCougFB, 4.96
5. Iosua Opeta, @weberstatefb, 5.02— NFL Draft (@NFLDraft) March 1, 2019
Jackson Barton
The former Ute had a good 40-yard dash time at 5.18, which is good for 17th in the Combine. He recorded 25 reps in the bench press. Barton posted 27 inches in the vertical jump and 109 inches in the broad jump.
He ran the three-cone drill in 7.85 seconds, while finishing the 20-yard shuffle in 4.66 seconds.
Mitch Wishnowsky
Just six specialist are participating in the Combine with two of them coming from Utah. Wishnowsky recorded an impressive 4.63 time in the 40-yard dash.
“I’ll take it,” said Wishnowsky to KSL Sports. “I wanted a 4.59, but it’s still good. I didn’t feel great and wasn’t fresh. If I ran before kicking, I would be faster, but kicking is obviously the most important thing,” he added.
Wishnowsky recorded 32.5 inches in the vertical jump and 117 inches in the broad jump.
Matt Gay
Gay did not participate in anything but kicking field goals. The NFL does not post those numbers.
