Mizzou Wrestling vs. UT-C (UPDATED with recap)

Kind of forgot about this meet, and I do not know that I will be around for the entire thing, but it has just started and can be followed here.  Mizzou needs to start putting some good efforts together as they get ready for the conference season, which really is the first step towards the NCAA Championships in March.

Looks like Eric Wilson, who I believe is a true frosh, will see the start at 125.  To me, this not only means that Brad Wisdom is still (clearly) out, but that perhaps Troy Dolan is no longer in the good graces of the squad.  Nick Hucke will go at 141, and Max Askren will sit at 184.

Some action is chronicled below...the recap will be after the jump

As shown below, the action started out at 184, and as we have seen a number of times before (and will likely see again), Askren took a seat in favor for 174 pounder Todd Porter.  He did not do much in his match, getting down and rolled early and losing a major decision 12-1.  #18 Brent Haynes would respond in a strong way, matching the major with his own 15-4 win which featured Haynes rolling his opponent for three points three times in just the first period.  With the action tied at 4-4, the Tigers would take the lead for good, as #7 Mark Ellis got one takedown and a 1st period pin to give the Tigers 5 big points (yes...it is normally six but the scorebook shows the Tigers lost a point on unsportsmanlike conduct at this match). 

At 125, Eric Wilson, who appears to have been planned to redshirt (and which makes me think Brad Wisdom may be gone for an extended period of time), got his first varsity start of his career.  He would give up a takedown in each of the first two periods and mustered only a third period escape on his way to losing 5-1.  Still up 9-7, Nathan McCormick showed up in a big way at 133.  The redshirt frosh put on a takedown clinic, scoring five of them along with assorted escapes and a two-point nearfall on his way to the second major decision for the Tigers on the evening, a 15-5 win.  #19 Todd Schavrien also received a pass for the night, as redshirt frosh Nick Hucke stepped to the mat and won a 6-3 decision.  Hucke was able to score both 2nd period reversal and a third period takedown on his way to this win, which would put the Tigers up 16-7 and in control.

Brandon Wiest took the start at 149 against a true freshman from UT-C.  Wiest had the match back to 2-1 early in the second after an escape...and went on to lose a major decision 10-2.  Even though the Tigers still had three ranked wrestlers to go, this result gave UT-C a glimmer of hope as they moved the score to 16-11.  #16 Patrick Wright lost a real tough 2-1 OT match where the combatants matched escapes through regulation, but Wright could not get his escape in OT.  This tight loss further emboldened UT-C and had them back to 16-14.  But #6 Nick Marable would slam the door with one of his most dominating matches in his career, as the riding time point would result in his tech'ing his Moc opponent 22-7.  Marable scored 8 takedowns on the match, and only allowed 7 escapes.  With the match clinched at 21-14, #10 Dorian Henderson would take the mat in the match of the night against #20 Jake Young of UT-C.  Henderson would score five points in the first and hang on for 6-4 win to complete the 24-14 win for Mizzou.

Some Things I Think I Know (in fantastic bullet form)

• While unranked, UT-C is a solid program who is rebuilding right now
• Mizzou put out 2 seniors, 1 junior (Wiest) and the rest were sophomore or younger.
• Mizzou should still expect at least three All-Americans this year (Marable, Askren, Ellis)
• If you think we are young this year, we will replace Ellis with a junior next year in Dom Bradley, Marable with a RS-Frosh Zach Toal, and may only have two senior starters (Schavrien and Wiest, though I imagine the latter is up for discussion)
• 2011/2012...watch out :-)

The Tigers have one more weekend of non-con duals, as they will swing out east next weekend to take on Hofstra, George Mason and Drexel.  These are matches the Tigers should expect to win and hopefully gain some momentum heading towards Big XII's, where individual performance dictates seed at the Big XII Championships and that goes a long way towards how many you send to the NCAA's (you ALWAYS want to be a 3 or better in the Big XII's)