The Missouri Tigers wrestling team was able to overcome an early 6-0 deficit to earn a victory over the Purdue Boilermakers in their first match of the season Sunday.
The Tigers forfeited at the 125-pound weight class due to an injury sophomore Alan Waters suffered the night before that caused coach Brian Smith to hold him out of the match, giving the Boilermakers an early 6-0 advantage.
“Alan hurt something last night and couldn’t warm up,” Smith said. “We decided to hold him out of this match. He wasn’t happy about it, but it’s too early in the season to risk it.”
Junior Nathan McCormick helped MU rebound, beating Purdue senior Matt Fields 14-12 with a takedown in overtime. The 133-pound bout was closer than expected with McCormick coming in ranked No. 15 in the country.
“McCormick started with a lot of adversity,” Smith said. “He was down and on his back, but he never flinched. Then he got back to what he does best, and that kind of sent a message that the rest of the team was able to feed off of.”
Redshirt freshman Drake Houdashelt followed up a strong performance in the Black and Gold match with a decisive 10-4 victory over junior Tom Churchard. Houdashelt secured three points for a near fall and narrowly missed scoring a fall in the final moments of the match.
The 165-pound clash resulted in a 7-4 victory for MU sophomore Zach Toal, who beat sophomore Kyle Mosier for the second straight season, giving the Tigers their first lead of the contest at 12-9.
The only fall of the day occurred 18 seconds into the 174-pound match. Missouri senior Dorian Henderson struck quickly against Purdue freshman Drake Stein to put the Tigers on top 18-9, and that would be all the team needed.
“It means a lot to get off to a fast start,” Henderson said. “Confidence is a big thing. Coach always says a confident wrestler is a dangerous wrestler. We’re going to build off of this and keep going for the rest of the season.”
Purdue was able to earn six points with victories from redshirt seniors A.J. Kissel and Roger Vukobratowich in the 197- and 265-pound divisions, but a victory at 184 helped Missouri secure a 21-15 victory.
Despite the decisive win, the Tigers know they will have to do more to keep pace with tough conference opponents in the coming weeks.
“It was a good performance by a lot of guys,” junior Mike Larson said. “We want to do more though. We want to dominate opponents. There are some tough matches coming up, but we’re hoping to pick up some more wins.”
The fast start was important for the Tigers, who will head to Oklahoma for a pair of conference battles against Big 12 conference powers Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.
“The fast start is big,” Smith said. “I don’t schedule easy, so we’re going right into the heat of the fire next week. This is Big 12 wrestling right away, so it’s an exciting week for us.”