Missouri opens 2012 at Southern Scuffle

After a quick two week break for the holidays, the No. 11 Missouri wrestling team looks to continue their hot streak as they head to their first major tournament of the season. The Tigers, who have won four consecutive dual matches by a total of 63 points, will join 21 other squads at the 2012 Southern Scuffle, hosted by the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. Action will take place on Sunday, Jan. 1 and Monday, Jan. 2.

Joining the Tigers at the tournament will be seven other teams ranked in the lastest NWCA Top 25 poll, including No. 3 Minnesota, No. 4 Cornell, No. 5 Penn State, No. 15 Virginia Tech, No. 16 Oregon State, No. 21 Virginia and No. 25 Hofstra. Last year, Cornell and Penn State tied for first place in the team standings at the Southern Scuffle.

Live results will be provided through trackwrestling.com, and fans can find a direct link to the results at mutigers.com. The official Mizzou Wrestling Twitter account, @MizzouWrestling, will also tweet results for those without computer access. For more information, visit thesouthernscuffle.com and mutigers.com.

A LOOK AT THE BRACKETS
Missouri will have 20 wrestlers competing across the 10 weight classes this weekend. Of those 20 grapplers, four Tigers earned the No. 2 seed in their respective class. Here's a look at who will be wrestling in what class, and what other ranked wrestlers make up those classes.

125: Missouri will have Boomer Boyd and Alan Waters at 125 pounds, with Waters earning the No. 2 seed in the class. Boyd is just one of six wrestlers at the weight to not earn a first round bye, so he will open up with a pigtail matchup against Daniel Gallagher of Chattanooga. Waters, the third ranked wrestler at 125 according to Intermat, will take on Corey Hodowanic of Minnesota in his first match. Other ranked wrestlers include No. 1 Zach Sanders (Minnesota), No. 7 Frank Perrelli (Cornell), No. 9 Matthew Snyder (Virginia), No. 12 Steve Bonanno (Hofstra) and No. 13 Nicholas Megaludis (Penn State).

133: Nathan McCormick grabbed the No. 2 seed at this weight, while Eric Wilson will also compete for Missouri at 133 pounds. Both wrestlers will have pigtail matches to open the tournament, with Wilson set to take on Cameron Throckmorton (North Carolina) and McCormick going up against Andrew Hammer of Ohio. No. 5 David Thorn (Minnesota) is the top seed, while No. 16 Garrett Drucker (Oregon State), No. 18 Aaron Kalil (Navy) and No. 20 Matthew Nelson (Virginia) are also in the field.

141: Brandon Wiest and Nicholas Hucke will compete in a field that features five of Intermat's top-20 wrestlers in the class. Both Tigers get byes into the round of 32, with Wiest set to face the winner of Luke Vaith (Hofstra) and Brent Jorge (Unattached). Hucke will take the winner of Undrakhb Khishignyam (The Citadel) and Seth Lange (Minnesota). The top two seeds in the weight class are No. 5 Mike Mangrum, who Wiest took to overtime back in November, and No. 14 Evan Henderson of North Carolina. Other ranked wrestlers include No. 10 Nick Dardanes (Minnesota), No. 15 Michael Nevinger (Cornell) and No. 19 Nick Nelson (Virginia).

149: Wrestling for Missouri will be No. 14 Kyle Bradley and Kellen Bounous, with Bradley coming in as the No. 2 overall seed at 149 pounds. Both grapplers open with pigtail matches, as Bounous is set to face Indiana's Taylor Walsh, while Bradley will face David Ivashchenko (The Citadel). Frank Molinaro of Penn State, the No. 1 ranked 149 pounder in the nation, earned the top seed, while No. 11 Dylan Ness (Minnesota), No. 18 Craig Eifert (Cornell) and No. 20 Scott Sakaguchi also join the field.

157: A pair of redshirt freshmen in Drake Houdashelt and Austin Lindsay will compete at 157 pounds for Missouri, with Houdashelt earning the No. 4 seed in the class. Both grapplers get byes into the round of 32. Houdashelt is scheduled to take on David Wesley of Virginia, while Lindsay will face No. 16 Roger Pena of Oregon State. Other top-20 grapplers include No. 1 and top-seeded Kyle Dake (Cornell) and Dylan Alton (Penn State), who is ranked 10th.

165: Mizzou will feature three wrestlers at 165 pounds, led by No. 12 Zach Toal, who picked up the fourth seed. Joining him will be Jordan Gagliano and Patrick Wright. All three Tigers earned byes into the round of 32. Toal is set to face Coleman Gracey (Army), while Gagliano will take on Nijel Jones (North Carolina). Wright's first match will be against Sheldon Brandenburg of Cleveland State. No. 1 David Taylor of Penn State highlights the weight as the top seed, while No. 3 Paul Gillespie (Hofstra), No. 10 Cody Yohn (Minnesota) and No. 20 Kyle Blevins are other top-20 wrestlers set to compete.

174: Four Tiger grapplers will wrestle at 174 pounds, with senior Dorian Henderson, who ranks seventh overall, comes in as Mizzou's fourth No. 2 seed. Juniors Todd Porter and Clarence Neely, along with redshirt freshman Johnny Eblen, are also in the field. Porter's first match will come in the round of 32 and he'll take on Levi Clemons of host Chattanooga in his first match. Eblen is scheduled to face No. 17 Turtogto Luvsandorj (The Citadel) in his opening contest, while Neely will face the winner of Adrin Taylor (Old Dominion) and No. 11 Logan Storley (Minnesota). Henderson will be the only Tiger in the class to wrestle a pigtail match, as he prepares to face Stephen Doty (Virginia) in the opening round. No. 2 Ed Ruth (Penn State) earned the No. 1 seed, while No. 14 Nick Purdue (Ohio) and No. 15 Te Edwards (Old Dominion) join Henderson, Storley and Luvsandorj as top-20 wrestlers in the class.

184: No. 17 Mike Larson will be the lone Tiger in a class that features seven of Intermat's top-20 grapplers. His first match will be against Ohio's Ryan Garringer in the round of 32. No. 4 Stephen Bosak of Cornell is the top seed, while No. 8 Kevin Steinhaus (Minnesota), No. 5 Quentin Wright (Penn State) and No. 10 Austin Trotman (Appalachian) are the 2-3-4 seeds, respectively. Also set to compete are No. 11 Jonathan Fausey (Virginia) and No. 15 Luke Rebertus (Navy).

197: Junior Brent Haynes, ranked 19th in the country, will open the tournament in the round of 32 with a matchup against Virginia's Ryan Malo. Three of the top four wrestlers in this class will be competing this weekend, as No. 1 Cam Simaz (Cornell), No. 2 Sonny Yohn (Minnesota) and No. 4 Matt Powless (Indiana) come in as the top-three seeds. Other top-20 wrestlers include No. 11 Morgan McIntosh (Penn State) and No. 13 Taylor Meeks of Oregon State.

HWT: At heavyweight, redshirt freshman Devin Mellon prepares for a round of 32 matchup against Andrew Delaney of The Citadel. Just four ranked wrestlers are set to compete at 285 pounds, but those four wrestlers are all ranked in the top-eight according to Intermat. Earning the top seed was No. 7 Anthony Nelson of Minnesota, while No. 4 Clayton Jack of Oregon State comes in as the No. 2 seed. The third and fourth seeds are No. 8 Cameron Wade (Penn State) and No. 5 Jeremy Johnson (Ohio), respectively.

LAST TIME AT THE SCUFFLE
This will be Missouri's first appearance at the Southern Scuffle since 2006, when the Tigers took first place in the team standings with 179.5 points, just edging out Minnesota and their 176.0 points. Mizzou had two individual champions in brothers Ben Askren (174) and Max Askren (197). Ben pinned his way to the championship, recording five first period falls on his way to being named Most Outstanding Wrestler of the tournament. Max pinned three of his opponents, including Ohio State's J.D. Bergman in the finals, and won by decision in his other two matches. Raymond Jordan placed second at 184 pounds, while Ashtin Primus (141) and Nick Marable (165) both came in third.

WHAT'S NEXT
Mizzou returns to dual action next week with a rematch against the Iowa State Cyclones, this time in Ames. Action gets underway on Sunday, Jan. 8 at 2 p.m. CT.

NO. 12 TIGERS BLAST CYCLONES, 31-10
Scoring bonus points has been the theme for the Tiger wrestling team as of late, and Sunday afternoon was no different. No. 12 Missouri (5-1, 1-1 Big 12) won seven of the 10 matches against Iowa State in front of 1,239 fans, scoring bonus points in five of those wins to pace their 31-10 victory.

Iowa State took the early lead with an upset win at 174 pounds, as No. 7 Chris Spangler defeated No. 3 Dorian Henderson by a 7-4 decision. Missouri bounced back, however, with five straight victories to go ahead 21-3. Mike Larson scored a first period fall at 184 pounds, while Brent Haynes won by technical fall, 15-0. Devin Mellon defeated Matt Gibson at heavyweight, 3-2, and then Alan Waters scored a 13-4 major decision over No. 10 Ryak Finch before Nathan McCormick won his match by a 9-3 decision.

Mizzou also got bonus point wins from Kyle Bradley at 149, who scored a fall over Joe Cozart with just one second left on the clock, and from Drake Houdashelt at 157, who won by a 13-3 major decision.

FOLLOW MIZZOU WRESTLING ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER
If you're on Facebook or Twitter, make sure to follow the official University of Missouri Wrestling team to get exclusive updates, pictures, video content and live results throughout the entire season. Head to facebook.com/MizzouWrestling or twitter.com/MizzouWrestling and follow us today.

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Missouri opens 2012 at Southern Scuffle

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