Mizzou had their first home action of the season, as the Pride of Hofstra visited Hearnes. Hofstra was fresh off of an upset over highly ranked Penn State, and is known all throghout the wrestling community as being a giant killer in dual meets. A big crowd would be on hand for the first annual Wrestlers for Wrestling fund raiser, with all the money from the dual going towards the endowed fund. Let's take a look at how the Tigers fared. Of course, if you were involved in yesterday's live football thread, you can go back through that and gleam some of my "live" thoughts.
125:
Certainly going to be a learning experience for RS Frosh Troy Dolan at the start of this season. From a team standpoint, having Pescaglia this weight would make us all the tougher, but we will get through it. Dolan is still searching for his first win, as he fell in a 8-2 decision to Bonanno of Hostra. The two were scoreless through the first and Bonanno started the 2nd on bottom. From there, he earned an escape and then took Dolan down. Dolan would start period 3 on bottom and earned the escape to get the match to 3-1, but Bonanno would take Dolan down two more times while earning the riding time point to finish the match the winner at 8-2. This would put the Tigers down 3-0 to start.
133:
Tough matchup for sophomore Todd Schavrien at 133, having to take on a highly ranked Lou Ruggirello. "Lou" would get the early takedown on Schavrien and immediately put him on his back. Very quickly, as in 51 seconds, Schavrien would be pinned and Hofstra would do what they normally do against ranked teams...earn bouns points. This would put them up 9-0. While we could not expect a win here from Schavrien, you do hope matchups like this do not end in pin.
141:
Junior Marcus Hoehn would take the mat in need of a win for the Tigers, who had not even scored a takedown yet against the Pride. Hoehn fought a tough first , scoreless first period until Justin Accordino took Hoehn down at the buzzer to end the 1st up 2-0. Hoehn would start on bottom and get the escape in the 2nd, but Accordino would take him down again to extend his lead to 4-1. Accordino was given the escape in the 3rd period, but Hoehn could not muster any offense and the match would end as a 5-1 decision. This would make the score 12-0 and put the Tigers in a pretty desparate need of some wins.
149:
Mizzou would look to senior Andrew Sherry in the next match, and pretty wild match it was with Paul Gillespie. Sherry got out to an early lead, getting a take down and two additional points for near-fall to build a 4-0 lead. But Gillespie would come right back, reversing Sherry for two points, and then getting two near-fall points himself to even the score at 4, still in the 1st. Sherry would escape and finish the crazy first period up 5-4. Sherry took neutral to start the second, a smart choice as he was able to score another takedown, finishing the period after a Gillespie escape up 7-5. Gillespie would get his escape in the 3rd to cut it to 7-6, but could not muster any additional offense against Sherry. With 1:27 of riding time, Sherry would bring home Mizzou's first win of the afternoon with a 8-6 decision, making the dual score 12-3.
157:
I was curious to see if #8 Mike Chandler would make his 08-09 season debut or not after Emanuel Brooks had been given this spot for the first two duals. Chandler took the mat against a ranked Jonny Bonilla-Bowman in what was to be one of the better matches of the day. Chandler went to work early, getting an early take down, letting Bowman up and getting another for a 4-1 1st period score. Chandler would take bottom to start the 2nd and got the escape along with another takedown, pushing his lead out to 7-2 after another Bowman escape. The third would see Chandler take total control from the neutral position, scoring another takedown and then 3 points for a near-fall. With the almost 3 minutes of riding time, Chandler would earn a major decision with the dominant score of 13-2. Great win for him to start his campaign and this would get the Tigers back closer as they now trailed 12-7.
165:
Nick Marable would start his journey back to the #1 spot in the land with a tough match against an experienced Ryan Patrovich of Hofstra. The two would be scoreless through the first period, with Patrovich starting on bottom in the 2nd. He would earn the escape in short order and the two would move to the 3rd at the 1-0 score. Marable would earn his escape in the 3rd and would go scoreless the rest of the time, pushing the two to OT. The first period is a sudden victory period in which neither scored. The next OT period started with Patrovich on bottom and Marable was able to "ride him out" (keep him from escaping) through the 30 second period. The next period starts with the reverse as Marable would be on bottom and needing only an escape to win. Marable would get the escape and fend off Patrovich for the rest of the period, earning a tough 2-1 win. The decision would move the Tigers to a 12-10 deficit, but would give them three straight wins.
174:
The match of the day sounds like it lived up to its billing, as you had two top-10 wrestlers squaring off with Raymond Jordan for the Tigers and Alton Lucas for the Pride. A scoreless first period would lead to Jordan taking bottom to start the 2nd. He would get the escape and lead 1-0 at period's end. Lucas took bottom to start the third, and would eventually earn his escape, getting the match all square at 1-1, where it would stay to finish regulation. The two would move to the sudden victory period, and Jordan would score the takedown for an exciting and impressive 3-1 decision. This would push the Tigers into the lead for the afternoon at 13-12 and is a really nice win for Jordan who is still getting used to the new weight class.
184:
With the Tigers up 13-12, the team and Dorian Henderson had a great chance to give them some breathing room. Henderon would take the mat against a fellow freshman in Ben Clymer from Hofstra and would impress. Henderson got a takedown in the 1st and cut Clymer loose (gave him the escape) to finish the period at 2-1. Henderson started the 2nd round on bottom, earning a big reverse and even bigger near fall to push the advantage (after another Clymer escape) to 7-2 after two. The third would start with Clymer on bottom, where he would earn his third escape, but could not do anything else. In the end, Henderson would get another point as Clymer was penalized for fleeing the mat. With 1:04 of riding time, Henderson would close out an impressive 9-3 win, giving the Tigers a 16-12 lead with two matches to go.
197:
The last featured match of the day pitted Max Askren against a ranked Joe Fagiano and Askren would get the early advantage, scoring a takedown and leading 2-1 after one. Askren would start the 2nd on bottom and earn not only an escape, but two additional takedowns to finish the period with a commanding 7-2 lead. A crazy third period would see Fagiano escape, Aslren take him down, Fagiano escape again, and then take Askren down, who would then reverse him and earn a penalty point for Fagiano stalling. All of that would finish the match at a 12-6 score for Askren, and with the three points, the Tigers would clinch the dual as they led 19-12 with only one match to go.
HWY:
I am not going to pretend to have any idea about how Coach Brian Smith plans to work this weight class as the season goes on, but with the win wrapped up, I was pleased to see Dom Bradley get another start. He would score a takedown in the 1st and finish up 2-1. His opponent would tie the score at 2-2 thanks to his escape in the 2nd period. Bradley would start on bottom in the 3rd looking for the escape and win. He would do one better, gaining a reverse on Jordan Enck to make the match 4-2. That is how it would finish as the Tiger would complete the dual with seven straight wins and a 22-12 score.
Many of the Tigers will be in action all throughout the day today with the Missouri Open. I will cover the winners and placings in the Monday Musings, as the tournament is rather large and most Mizzou wrestlers will take part in it. But as it pertains to this dual, I feel this is a pretty impressive showing for the Tigers. As I stated last week, this was a dual they SHOULD win, but they went out and performed pretty darn well. Of course, you would like for a better contribution from the light weights, but unfortunately I see this as an issue which will follow the Tigers for much of the season. The next dual action for the team will be next Saturday in Troy, NY as the Tigers will wrestle FOUR duals against Old Dominion, Maryland, Harvard and Brown. All of these are duals which the Tigers should win, but it will be interesting to see who sees action in what will be a LONG day of wrestling action.