Mizzou Wrestling: Tigers In The Lead After Day One of Big 12’s

As a refresher, here’s a guide to postseason scoring, as well as my preview.

Mizzou had a dominant start to the Big 12 tournament going 4-0 with three bonus wins and a big upset by Connor Brown over the 3 seed in the opening round. Josh Edmond scored a 19-4 technical fall, Peyton Mocco a 13-4 major, and Rocky Elam had a 14-3 major.

The quarterfinals were tougher as the Tigers went 4-6. Noah Surtin faced off against the 4 seed, Travis Mastrogiovanni of OSU, and gave up two takedowns to lose 4-2. He had a near cradle at the end but ran out of time to lock it up. Connor Brown had the 6 seed, Haiden Drury of UVU, but couldn’t keep the momentum going and lost 6-2. Allan Hart ended up having an opportunity for revenge against unseeded Ty Smith of UVU and won a dominant 9-2 match. Josh Edmond had a rematch himself and struggled against 5 seed UNI’s Colin Realbuto in a close 3-1 decision loss. Jarrett Jacques had a rematch against Wyoming’s Jacob Wright, but lost 3-2 in overtime.

Keegan O’Toole controlled OU’s Joe Grello in a 6-1 decision. Peyton Mocco scored a big seed upset and big bonus points as he pinned OU’s Anthony Mantanona, the 3 seed. Jeremiah Kent got a similar big win as he beat 3 seed Wyoming’s Tate Samuelson 6-2. Rocky Elam had a rematch against ISU’s Yonger Bastida but again came up just short, losing 4-3. Zach Elam suffered the biggest upset of the day as he lost to the 7 seed, OSU’s Luke Surber, in overtime 6-4.

Noah Surtin dropped to the consolation round and beat Jared Van Fleet of Air Force 6-3, but then lost to 8 seed Jace Koelzer of Northern Colorado 2-1. Surtin didn’t appear to have the same energy going into the match, and an early technical violation cost him. He’ll wrestle ISU’s Kysen Terukina for 7th place, but he will need an At-Large bid regardless to get to the NCAA tournament with only six auto qualifying bids at this weight.

Connor Brown beat the 4 seed, NDSU’s Kellyn March, in a back and forth 11-9 overtime match, but he then ended up losing to OU’s Anthony Madrigal 4-3. Brown appeared to have a takedown at the end of the first, but it was waived off. Brown wrestled well and scored some big upsets, but came up just short to qualifying with only six qualifying spots. With a 5-9 record he is likely going to miss out on an At-Large bid.

Josh Edmond rebounded from his loss with two wins over opponents he had wrestled before. He beat Wyoming’s Jaron Jensen by major 17-8 and NDSU’s Gaven Sax 11-6. Tomorrow he’ll get a rematch against ISU’s Jarrett Degen, who beat him in a 9-7 match at the dual. A win there would put him in the third place match and qualify him for NCAA’s, while a loss would have him needing an At-Large bid.

Jarrett Jacques has officially qualified for NCAAs for the fourth time in his career, as the lowest he can finish now in the tournament is 6th and there are 6 qualifying spots. He beat Northern Colorado’s Nathan Moore by 11-3 major and Kenny O’Neil of SDSU 5-3. Tomorrow he’ll start with Justin Thomas of OU, who beat him in overtime 2-1 at the dual.

Rocky Elam has struggled this tournament and was only able to score two close decisions on the backside. He beat Gavin Stika of OSU 4-1, then Evan Bockman of UVU in overtime 4-2. With 7 qualifying spots, he’ll make it to this year’s tournament as the lowest he can finish is 6th. Today he’ll wrestle NDSU’s Owen Pentz, who he majored in the dual to start the season. Mizzou needs Rocky to wrestle well and place high for the team points.

Zach Elam looked better after the early upset and scored a one-sided, 6-0 decision over Jacob Seely of Northern Colorado. He then pinned the 6 seed Brandon Metz. Zach has now qualified for his third NCAA’s as well with six qualifying spots at this weight, giving Mizzou seven qualifiers at the moment and one more getting a chance today.

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For the guys who made the semis, there was a different story for Mizzou, as they went 4-0 with two majors and two decisions. Allan Hart’s bracket blew up, so he ended wrestling the 8 seed Dylan Droegmueller of NDSU and dominated in a 14-1 major. He’ll wrestle the 3 seed, Andrew Alirez, in the finals, who beat Hart 3-1 in overtime at the dual. Keegan O’Toole also faced an NDSU wrestler, Luke Weber, and won in a 12-3 major decision after a big move in the third period. He’ll see 2 seed Peyton Hall of WVU, who he majored at the Scuffle. Peyton Mocco and Jeremiah Kent both crashed the finals as six seeds beating the two seeds at their respective weights. Mocco got revenge over Cade Devos of SDSU 2-0 as he scored an escape and a gritty third period rideout. Kent scored another significant win over Marcus Coleman, this time winning multiple scrambles and racking up over two minutes of riding time. Mocco will face top seed Dustin Plott of OSU and Kent will see one seed UNI’s Parker Keckeisen.

While there were a lot of ups and downs in Day 1 of the tournament, Mizzou has a chance to qualify 8 wrestlers for NCAAs depending on the outcome of today’s matches. Additionally, Mizzou leads the conference in team points and can hopefully stay on top to clinch their 11th conference tournament.

Team Points:

Mizzou - 109.5

OU - 93.5

OSU - 90.0

UNI - 85

ISU - 82.5

Sunday, March 7

Session 3: Consolation Semifinals, Third & Fifth Place Matches [Big 12 Now on ESPN+] – 12 p.m. CT

Session 4: Championship Matches [ESPN2] – 5 p.m. CT