The Missouri wrestling team celebrated senior day Sunday, and the lone senior in Missouri’s lineup against Oklahoma made the most of his final home dual at the Hearnes Center, leading the No. 13 Tigers to a 25-12 upset over the No. 10 Sooners.
Senior Dorian Henderson, a 174-pound grappler, scored a major decision over Oklahoma’s Kyle Detmer, keeping his opponent from scoring a single point in the 11-0 match.
“Words can’t explain it,” Henderson said in between signing autographs for the youth wrestlers on hand. “I really wanted to come out here and end it on a win. It was a great way to cap it off and it gives me a lot of confidence.”
The rest of the Tigers followed suit.
Sophomore No. 3 Alan Waters continued his stellar season with a 7-0 decision over No. 7 Jarrod Patterson of Oklahoma. Waters took control of the 125-pound match with a pair of takedowns and a near fall to give Missouri a 3-0 lead.
At 133 pounds, junior No. 8 Nathan McCormick extended MU’s lead to 6-0 with a closely contested 5-3 match against No. 11 Jordan Keller of Oklahoma. The two entered the final frame tied at two, but McCormick managed an eventual match-winning reversal with a little more than a minute to go.
The Tigers’ lead was erased at 141 pounds after No. 3 Kendric Maple recorded a fall against Missouri junior Nicholas Hucke.
Sophomore Kyle Bradley, who came into the match ranked No. 20 at 149 pounds, quickly turned the tide back in Missouri’s favor, upsetting No. 9 Nick Lester of Oklahoma. The match was scoreless heading into sudden victory, where Bradley narrowly avoided a takedown from Lester before scoring a takedown of his own to give the Tigers a 9-6 lead.
“A lot of people would have given up there,” coach Brian Smith said. “But Kyle not only fought off the takedown, but he fought it off and scored. Those were big points for us.”
Oklahoma tied the score at nine heading into intermission after No. 15 Matt Lester edged Missouri redshirt freshman Drake Houdashelt for a 6-1 decision. The Sooners took a 12-9 lead following the intermission with another close 4-3 decision as Patrick Graham upset Missouri sophomore Zach Toal, who entered the match ranked No. 20 at 165 pounds.
Then came Henderson’s major decision to give the Tigers a narrow 13-12 lead.
“I tend to overthink things, so I tried to simplify things and just went out there and wrestled,” Henderson said. “I just did what I do, and good things happened.”
Junior Mike Larson rebounded from an upset loss against No. 1 Oklahoma State in a big way, recording a victory by fall to extend Missouri’s lead to 19-12. And the Tigers didn’t look back.
“Mike Larson came up with an important pin,” Smith said. “We kept telling him to shoot, shoot, shoot. He finally got the shot off, takes him down and goes and gets the pin. This is how you come back from a loss like yesterday.”
Larson stressed the importance of the match afterwards.
“This was a big one for me,” Larson said. “Me and this guy have had some bad blood, so I really wanted this win, especially after my horrible performance yesterday.”
At 197 pounds, junior Brent Haynes continued his impressive campaign with a comeback decision against Oklahoma’s Keldrick Hall. The three points in the heavyweight division were icing on the cake, as redshirt freshman Devin Mellon bested Sooner heavyweight Kyle Colling to give the Tigers a 25-12 victory.
Missouri will wrestle again Saturday at the national duals in New Jersey. Coach Smith was unsure of where the team would be seeded, but said this win was big.
