Alright everyone....welcome to the first installment of the Wrestling Wrap-Up. This time, I will go ahead and cover the results of the first two dual meets of the season, both wins for the Tigers. I will go weight class by weight class and just give some brief thoughts (very brief since I did not see a minute of action) With two duals, let's get right into the results. Mizzou defeated Lock Haven to start the season on Friday night by the score of 33-9, taking 8 of 10 matches. They came back Saturday afternoon to take on a tougher Bucknell squad, winning the dual 25-16 and taking 6 matches total.
{a note - The dual meet against Lock Haven started at the 125 pound class, but the dual against Bucknell started at 157 and came back around. This is allowed, though I am not sure the ryhme or reason to it. Therefore, I will cover Lock Haven first and then Bucknell instead of each class since the order would only confuse you}
125 vs. Lock Haven - Cannot say it was the most auspicious start for Troy Dolan (who was holding a ranking of #19 from somewhere). Dolan came out and got stuck in the 1st period by Nick Hyatt, losing the match at 2:29. This gave Lock Haven an immediate 6-0 lead over the Tigers. Much more should probably be expected from Dolan, who was wrestling his first ever varsity match.
133 vs. Lock Haven - Mizzou came right back and cut the LHU lead in half as Todd Schavrien used a dominating 1st period where he built a 6-2 to propel him to a 7-6 win. Schavrien gave up a point for stalling and another for an illegal hold, but used the riding time he had built in the first period to get the extra point and the win for the Tigers.
141 vs. Lock Haven - Senior Marcus Hoehn took the mat here (was thinking it could be Primus, but between the reported improvement of Hoehn and Primus perhaps not being able to make the weight, here he was) and impressed in his first outing of the year. He won the match 12-4 thanks to five big takedowns and the major decision gave the Tigers the lead back at 7-6. Good to see a nice start for Hoehn.
149 vs. Lock Haven - The roster of wrestlers in this dual did skew older, as senior Andrew Sherry got the nod here over RS Frosh Max Shanaman. Sherry defeated his opponent, an NCAA qualifier last year, by the score of 8-5. He scored back points in the first round and a takedown in the third to salt it away. Color this an upset and a good win for Sherry as he looks to make a name for himself in his final year of eligibility. This gave the Tigers a 10-6 lead.
157 vs. Lock Haven - This was the biggest surprise of the night for me. Not that Mizzou won at this weight class, but that it was Emanuel Brooks, and not the nationally ranked Mike Chandler. I guess Coach Brian Smith put more stock into the Black and Gold meet than I did. Anyway, Brooks took the match 5-4 off of an escape and takedown in the third period and added three points to the Tiger total to make it 13-6.
165 vs. Lock Haven - #1 Nick Marable wasted little time putting forward the effort that will hopefully keep him at #1 all season, as he went out and collected an early 2nd round pin at the 3:40 mark. Marable toyed with his opponent the entire match, scoring 8 points in the first round before getting two more takedowns and an escape in the 2nd before the deed was done. The six big points move the dual to 20-6 at that point.
174 vs. Lock Haven - #3 Raymond Jordan hit the mat for his first action of the season (after sitting out the Black and Gold meet) and made an impressive debut at his new weight, winning his match via technical fall at the 6:17 mark by the impressive score of 25-10. The match featured TWELVE takedowns by Jordan (and obviously a number of escapes for his opponent, many of these I am guessing were free). The tech fall made the dual score 24-6 (which actually
184 vs. Lock Haven - I was getting nervous that none of the RS frosh class would wrestle, but Dorian Henderson stepped out here at 184 for his Tiger debut. Henderson got out to a nice start, leading 4-1 after one period, but could not keep it up and ultimately lost a 9-5 decision. This made the score 25-9 and actually clinched the dual win for the Tigers since Lock Haven could not make up that deficit in the two remaining matches....especially with
197 vs. Lock Haven - #5 Max Askren won via injury default as no wrestler from Lock Haven took the mat. This gave the Tigers six more points and ran the total to 30-9.
HWY vs. Lock Haven - Dom Bradley got the start for the Tigers and impressed, getting two takedowns in the first period, an escape in the 2nd and another takedown in the 3rd, winning the match with riding time by the score of 8-6. It was Bradley's first action and first (of likely) many wins. This made the final 33-9 (even though MUTigers.com has it at 32-9, but the math does not work out).
Overall, a good opening effort for Mizzou. Disappointing a little at 125 that Dolan would get pinned in the 1st, but you can never be too upset about eight wins. On to Bucknell, which remember started at 157, so we will start there as well
157 vs. Bucknell - Well...shows what I know, as Emanuel Brooks got the start here again and got the win here again, taking a pretty high scoring match 11-6. Brooks has tremendous speed, which is why he did so well against the 174 pounders last year at the Big XII Championships. This got the Tigers off to a great start, especially when you know their strength is at their back half of the lineup. 3-0 Mizzou.
165 vs. Bucknell - Wow...did not see this one coming at all. #1 Nick Marable loses in OT to #17 Andy Rendos by the score of 3-1. Coach Smith seemed pleased with the effort of Marable, saying he just did not get the takedown at the end of the match to get the win. He got reversed in OT, and that is tough to come back from. So...I am guessing he will move down the rankings, but hopefully use this as fuel the rest of the season. This made the dual 3-3.
174 vs. Bucknell - Raymond Jordan's match took on some extra importance here after the loss by Marable, and Ray did not disappoint. He came right out and scored his second win of the season by winning a major decision 13-3. The bonus points gave Mizzou back the lead at 7-3, and closed out a weekend where Jordan scored an impressive 38 points.
184 vs. Bucknell - Dorian Henderson was sent right back out to the mat after losing his first career match, and did very well to get his first career win in a great 11-3 major decision. Henderson accounted for 4 takedowns against his opponent, and the extra point in the decision gave Mizzou a 11-3 lead. After Marable tripped up, the Tigers did exactly what needed to be done, which was not only win the next matches, but do so with extra points.
197 vs. Bucknell - #5 Max Askren finally saw his first action of the season (after just getting his hand raised the night before) as he scored a dominating tech fall against Jay Hahn of Bucknell with the final being 20-4 as the match ended. The tech fall gave Mizzou 5 big points and stretched the lead even further to 16-3. A solid start to what should be another strong season for Max.
HWY vs. Bucknell - Dom Bradley went back out to the mat here and finished his first competitive weekend in fine fashion, scoring his first ever pin at the 1:45 mark and making the team score a pretty insurmountable 22-3. Bradley got a quick takedown and stayed on him, getting the big man turned and pinned. I would think given Bradley's size that if he gets you turned, you are not going to be able to fight off of your back against him.
125 vs. Bucknell - It had to be a little strange for Troy Dolan, who I am sure is very used to starting off dual meets (or wrestling in them pretty early). But, for as impressive as Bradley was this past weekend, his classmate Dolan was not. Troy managed to stay off of his back (permanently at least), but still fell 10-0 in the match. The major decision for Bucknell gave them their first points since Marable's upset and made the team score 22-7. Back to the drawing board for Dolan I guess.
133 vs. Bucknell - Todd Schavrien got the call and a tough draw against #13 David Marble of the Bison. Marble was able to get the pin at the tail end of the 2nd period with just three seconds to go (4:57) to give Bucknell a big win and actually move them back within striking distance at 22-13 at that point.
141 vs. Bucknell - Senior Marcus Hoehn finished a very impressive and pleasant surprise of a weekend with another win, beating his opponent by the score of 5-2. Hoehn lost to this same opponent last season by the same score evidently, so to get it turned around is hopefully a good sign. Coach Smith repeatedly commented about Hoehn's improved ability to finish his shots, and that was certainly on display this past weekend. The win moved the match to 25-13 and clinched the dual win for the Tigers.
149 vs. Bucknell - Last but not least, Andrew Sherry would finish the weekend on a bit of a down note, falling in his match 6-4 and making the final score 25-16 for the Tigers. His going 1-1 on the weekend was a nice surprise however for the Tigers, who will take whatever they can get from this class right now.
Marable losing is certainly a disappointment, but nice to see some other wins for the Tigers (Henderson, Bradley and Hoehn). The talent level they compete against will take a big step up in their next dual meet against Hofstra, which currently features four ranked wrestlers at 133, 157, 174 and 197. Some good potential matches at 157 (#8 Chandler vs. #15 Bonilla-Bowman), 174 (#3 Jordan vs. #6 Lucas) and 197 (#5 Askren vs. #17 Fagiano). Hofstra is coming off an upset win at #7 Penn State where they were able to get some bonus points at 133, 141 and 197. I dont see them getting the points at 197 and Lucas at 174 was upset. Wrestling at home in front of what should hopefully be a pretty large crowd with the "Wrestlers for Wrestling" promotion/compaign, this is still a dual which Mizzou should take over the newly ranked Dutchmen.