In its two duals Sunday afternoon, Missouri wrestling went 2-0, beating their opponents by a combined score of 65-13.
The two wins also takes their tally of wins against ranked opponents to three, two more than last season.
“We wrestled two really good teams and we won a lot of tight matches,” coach Brian Smith said in a press release. “We gutted out some very tough wins… To walk out of Hilton Coliseum with two ranked dual wins, that’s pretty big.”
Heading into Sunday 5-0 and ranked No. 9 in the nation, Missouri traveled to Hilton Coliseum in Ames to face No. 20 Northern Iowa and No. 10 Iowa State. Originally, the Tigers were also supposed to squareoff against No. 11 Arizona State as well, but the dual against the Sun Devils was canceled due to “COVID-19 developments” within ASU’s program.
Taking on No. 20 Brody Teske, Missouri’s No. 14 Connor Brown went to overtime for the second week in a row. The three periods of regulation were eventful, with Teske earning a last second takedown to take it overtime with Brown’s ridetime point in the third period. Teske would earn a takedown in overtime, giving the Panthers an early 3-0 lead.
The Tigers would go on to win eight of the final nine matches.
Missouri jumped in front after No. 10 Allan Hart took on Drew Bennett. Hart, who is undefeated so far this season, dominated Bennett. Earning two near-falls before claiming a technical fall victory in the third period, Hart walked out with a 17-0 momentum-shifting win. This gave the Tigers the lead, 8-3.
The Tigers would also hoist another pair of technical fall victories after Hart’s. Coming out aggressively, No. 12 Jarrett Jacques dominated with four takedowns in the first two periods before claiming the 19-4 technical fall victory over Cayd Lara to give Missouri a 16-3 lead.
The other technical fall victory for the Tigers came from No. 13 Keegan O’Toole against Patrick Schoenfelder. The true freshman came out of the gates quick, earning a near-fall, takedown and an escape before finishing the job in the third period, earning the technical fall by a score of 20-4, extending the Tigers’ lead to 21-3.
The Tigers also picked up a pin, courtesy of No. 18 Jeremiah Kent.
Kent, up against Northern Iowa’s Keegan Moore, wasted no time at all in getting the better of his opponent. Kent quickly pounced on Moore, rendering him defenseless early on and claiming the victory by fall at 2:23 in the first period.
When all was said and done, the Tigers mauled the Panthers, earning a dual victory by a score of 34-6.
The Tigers got off to a fast start in their subsequent dual against No. 10 Iowa State, picking up a 6-0 lead with wins from Brown and Matt Schmitt.
In one of the most anticipated matches of the day, No. 10 Hart took on No. 4 Ian Parker. Hart got off to a good start, claiming a near-fall and two takedowns in the first period to take a 6-3 lead. Pairing along with ridetime and a tactically proficient approach in the next two periods, Hart was able to claim the win, 7-4.
“That first match against Northern Iowa, I got my pace going,” Hart said in a press release. “In the second match versus Iowa State, it was really huge. He was ranked fourth in the country. I don’t like to play into the rankings, because anything can happen on any given day, but beating someone that highly ranked and established was really cool.”
The Tigers would also earn two more victories by pin, one from O’Toole and one from No. 19 Peyton Mocco.
At the end of the dual, Missouri claimed a 31-7 victory over Iowa State in a statement victory to improve to 7-0 on the season.
Missouri returns to MACtion Saturday, as the heavily favored Tigers take on Northern Illinois and Ohio in Columbia.
_Edited by Jack Soble | jsoble@themaneater.com_