"Our team came out and wrestled very aggressively tonight in a challenging environment," Head Coach Brian Smith said. "Overall I was really pleased with the way we competed. Even our losses were close and I was happy to see our guys come out and fight for every point. It was an emotional night for Ohio State with their new coaching staff and I was happy with the way our team responded to the challenge."
Co-captain and three-time All-American Askren opened the night's dual in St. John Arena with a 23-8 technical fall win over No. 12 Blake Mauer at 174 pounds. Askren tallied 10 takedowns, earning two points after Mauer was called for stalling and one point for 3:01 of riding time.
After suffering a hard-fought 3-2 loss at 184-pounds, redshirt freshman Maxwell Askren (Hartland, Wis.) came through with an upset over All-American and No. 2 ranked J.D. Bergman, 8-4, at 197 pounds. Making his first collegiate start in the Tiger lineup, Askren scored first with a takedown at 1:28 allowing Bergman an escape with 56 seconds on the clock. Askren came through with his second and final takedown of the match with 48 seconds left in the first period. With both grapplers scoring back-to-back reversals, Askren was hit with a one point stall call at 51 seconds but still closed out the period with the 6-4 advantage. An escape by Askren at 1:20 was the sole point scored in the third period and with 2:21 of riding time tacked on, Askren came out the victor.
The Tigers scored a major win at heavyweight as redshirt freshman Mark Ellis (Peculiar, Mo.) pinned the Buckeye's Corey Morrison in 3:22. Ellis led the bout, 2-1, entering the second period and managed to stick Morrison with 1:37 left for the first collegiate win of his career.
Returning to the top of the lineup, Missouri's third and final redshirt freshman, John Olanowski (Virginia Beach, Va.), made his first collegiate start and was credited with his first win, 5-2, at 125 pounds. Olanowski became the fourth of seven Tigers to score first in their respective matches, taking down Livingston 41 seconds into the match. Olanowski followed his takedown with a three-point nearfall at the one minute mark but was held scoreless through the final four minutes of action. With riding time not a factor and Livingston unable to score more than two escapes, Olanowski won the bout.
"I was really impressed with the way our freshmen wrestled tonight," Smith said. "Max came out and took a win from one of the best wrestlers in the nation, Ellis did a good job against a wrestler who placedl in last week's Michigan State Open, and Olanowski stayed strong for all seven minutes."
Winning the 133 pound match by default, the Tigers improved their team lead to 22-3 but lost at 141 and 149 pounds giving up six team points (22-9).
Wrestling in black, sophomore 2006 NCAA qualifier Michael Chandler (High Ridge, Mo.) shutout his Ohio State opponent, 4-0, earning 3:13 of riding time over 14th-ranked Jason Johnstone.
In the final match of the night, senior All-American Pell joined Missouri's 100-win club with a 15-5 major decision victory over Chris Vondruska. Pell became the 14th wrestler and sixth in five seasons to hit the century mark.
With the win. Missouri improved to 32-29 in season openers and claimed its fourth consecutive season opening victory, the second longest streak in the 62-year history of the Tiger wrestling program.
The Tigers will return home to Columbia and prepare for the sixth annual Missouri Open beginning at 9 a.m. (CT) Sunday, Nov. 19 in the Hearnes Fieldhouse. Over 400 wrestlers from 10 schools across the Midwest will compete in the all-day event, with top-ranked programs No. 3 Missouri, No. 6 Oklahoma, No. 14 Ohio State and No. 20 Indiana headlining the tournament.
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now