As No. 2 of the 174 weight class Daniel Lewis stepped onto the mat Sunday night, his No. 5 Missouri Tigers were in a pretty good position. No. 13 Connor Flynn of the 165 weight class defeated Iowa State’s Logan Schumacher minutes earlier, increasing the Mizzou lead to 17-9.
With three bouts left, there wasn’t a lot of pressure on Lewis’s shoulders, at least in terms of the dual. What was at stake was potential bragging rights with his teammate, No. 3 in the 141 class Jaydin Eierman.
Since the beginning of the season, Lewis and Eierman have had a friendly competition of who can rack up the most pins. In last week’s match against No. 2 Oklahoma State, Eierman moved two ahead of Lewis on the season by pinning No. 13 Kaid Brock.
“When Jaydin gets falls, it’s bittersweet,” Lewis said after the OSU match. “I’d rather him get tech falls and take a point away from their team some other way, but I definitely feed off that energy. I was just disappointed that I wasn’t able to get it today.”
So when Eierman picked up another fall on Sunday, this one against No. 12 Ian Parker of Iowa State, the pressure was on Lewis to keep pace. He did just that, taking barely over two minutes to pin freshman Marcus Coleman, keeping pace with Eierman and ensuring that Missouri would return from Ames victorious. The final score was 23-15.
Freshman and No. 19 heavyweight Zach Elam went into overtime for the second match in a row, starting the meet with a loss to redshirt sophomore Gannon Gremmel, 5-3, in four extra periods. Redshirt freshman Dack Punke lost by decision to No. 16 Alex Mackall to put Mizzou in an early 6-0 hole.
No. 10 John Erneste of MU picked up five points with a technical fall on No. 8 Austin Gomez, before Mizzou took the lead for good on Eierman’s pin.
Mizzou’s No. 5 Brock Mauller lost for just the second time all season at the 149. His teammate of the last five years, No. 12 Jarrett Jacques won his match, beating Chase Straw at the 157.
Redshirt junior Dylan Wisman and redshirt sophomore Wyatt Koelling ended the meet with losses at the 184 and 197 classes respectively.
Mizzou wrestling has the next week off before the Mid- America Conference championships begin in Norfolk, Virginia on March 8.
_Edited by Adam Cole | acole@themaneater.com_
