####“Tiger Style” receives trademark status, cementing its role in the Missouri wrestling program
“Tiger Style”: Does it mean the clothes sold at the Student Center? Maybe the trends of tailgate season?
Actually, “Tiger Style” is the motto for the Missouri wrestling team. And now that phrase is trademarked by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, according to the Columbia Tribune. The Tribune reported Saturday that the wrestling team found out about the trademark this week after a year-long process.
“What Tiger Style is about — you know, developing winners on and off the mat,” head coach Brian Smith said in a [Facebook video released by University of Missouri Wrestling](https://www.facebook.com/MizzouWrestling/videos/1387773277916747/) on Aug. 17, 2016.
The wrestling team incorporates Tiger Style into many of its marketing and promotional programs. The team’s Twitter handle is @MizzouWrestling, similar to other sports, but its actual username is #TigerStyle.
Additionally, summer camps are called #TigerStyle summer camps — with the registration for these camps being at tigerstylewrestling.com, naturally.
“It’s about more than just what happens on the mat,” a Mizzou Athletics representative said in the Facebook video. “It’s the all-encompassing lifestyle that every Mizzou wrestler adheres to. It’s what’s guided every single national champion that has come through Brian Smith’s training room over the last 18 years.”
The patent is owned by the curators of the University of Missouri public corporation, according to the Tribune.
####Eierman shines as program’s youth on show at U23 World Team Trials
As Mizzou wrestling ventures into a new, youth-led era, the program’s potential continues to be put on display.
Led by a third-place finish from sophomore Jaydin Eierman, several Missouri wrestlers excelled at the U23 World Team Trials in Rochester, Minnesota, this weekend.
Eierman was one of four current Mizzou athletes in action at the trials, claiming a third-place finish in his 65-kilogram weight class to finish highest among competing Tigers. Lavion Mayes, a volunteer assistant at Clarion University who graduated from Mizzou in 2017 after making four national championship appearances for the Tigers, also competed, going 3-2 in the 70-kilogram weight class Sunday.
Also wrestling at the trials were Missouri freshmen Dack Punke and Jake Raschka, along with redshirt freshman Wyatt Koelling, the lone Tiger to compete in Greco-Roman style as well as freestyle.
It was Eierman who shined brightest, though: The Columbia, Missouri, native cruised to a 4-1 record on Sunday, starting the day with back-to-back statement wins via technical fall. After suffering his lone defeat of the tournament in the semifinals by 15-5 technical fall, he regained his stride in emphatic fashion with a fall against Utah Valley’s Matt Findlay.
Taking on Clarion’s Brock Zacherl in the third-place match, Eierman survived his closest competition of the day with a tight 5-4 decision.
Koelling was the busiest Mizzou wrestler at the event, in action on Saturday and Sunday. A recruit out of Kaysville, Utah, who was a member on the junior world team, Koelling lost a 3-0 decision in the semifinals of the Greco-Roman competition Saturday. Back on the mat the next day for the 86-kilogram freestyle, Koelling went 2-2.
For the four current Tigers who qualified, the U23 World Team Trials served as a tune-up to the 2017-18 season. The team opens on Nov. 4 against Illinois in a first pitch of sorts, with the meet taking place at Mizzou Softball Stadium.
_Edited by Eli Lederman | elederman@themaneater.com_