Mizzou wrestling came into its match against Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville having outscored its opponents 91-19. They improved on that number Sunday afternoon.
All 10 Mizzou wrestlers won their bouts, six of them not going the full three periods, en route to a 48-0 blowout, their largest margin of victory on the young season.
Redshirt junior Jaydin Eierman got the ball rolling with a quick win by fall early in the first period of his bout against Lucas Bernal.
“I felt really good in my attacks,” Eierman said. “Going out there and trying to do things, just becoming more soundly overall in everything from my defense to my attacks is just making progress.”
A win by forfeit for Lane Stigall, starting in place of the injured Grant Leeth, gave the Tigers a 12-0 lead before many had found their seats at Hearnes Center.
The 157 weight class saw the closest bout of the day, with Mizzou’s Jarrett Jacques tied with Justin Ruffin 4-4 after three periods in a sluggish, conservatively wrestled contest. Jacques ended it by taking Ruffin down around the edge of the circle for a 6-4 win.
Victories from redshirt junior Connor Flynn, redshirt senior Daniel Lewis, and freshmen Dylan Wisman and Wyatt Koelling made the score 34-0 by the time heavyweight Zach Elam stepped to the mat. The true freshman has been one of the biggest surprises of Missouri’s season, coming into the match the winner of his last eight bouts. Elam kept that momentum up, coming out aggressively and jumping out to a 10-0 lead in the first period, winning 11-1.
“It was good,” Elam said. “I was attacking. I had a couple shots in the first, scored on one, took him to his back twice and I was just attacking and I felt good in the first, but I didn’t do well in the second or third. I didn’t score any points and it just shows that the more I attack the easier it will be to wrestle these guys.”
Despite the decisive victory, coach Brian Smith felt that the team had a lot to improve on going into their match against Buffalo next week.
“I’m already thinking of the things we did wrong,” he said with a chuckle. “I know that’s horrible, but we came out sluggish at 57 (the 157 weight class) and have to figure out what [Jacques] did wrong to prepare for the match.”
“[It’s] little things at every weight,” he said. “You’re gonna give up takedowns and you’re gonna make mistakes. It’s just how you respond to them and you got to respond to it with hitting something and doing something.”
_Edited by Adam Cole | acole@themaneater.com_