Mizzou Wrestling finishes fourth at the Big 12 Championships
Here’s how Tiger wrestlers finished:
125 pounds: Mack Mauger: Went 3-2, took seventh. Lost to Oklahoma State’s Troy Spratley, the eventual Big 12 champ, in the quarterfinals. Lost again in the consolation round, but beat Air Force’s Tucker Owens twice, in round one and again for seventh. He’ll need an at-large for the NCAA Championships.
133 pounds: Gage Walker: Went 3-2, took fifth. Stunned returning Big 12 champ, Northern Colorado’s Dom Serrano, in the quarterfinals, then slid to the fifth-place match after losing in the semifinals. But he’s an NCAA qualifier.
141 pounds: Easton Hilton: Went 0-2, did not place. Lost 7-2 to South Dakota State’s Julian Tagg, the 4-seed, in round one, then lost 4-2 to Utah Valley’s Haiden Drury, the 3-seed, in the wrestlebacks. Tough draw.
149 pounds: Josh Edmond: Went 3-2, took seventh. Was the 5-seed, and needed to take fifth to automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships. Now he’ll need an at-large.
157 pounds, Teague Travis: Went 3-3, took sixth. Needed fifth for an NCAA auto bid, so we’ll see about an at-large. The guys he lost to finished second, third, and fifth, so it’s not like he necessarily underperformed, but finishing one spot shy still hurts.
165 pounds, Maxx Mayfield: Went 1-2, did not place. Mayfield entered as the 4-seed. He led Iowa State’s Connor Euton after scoring a takedown in the quarterfinals, but lost that match, 8-6, then lost again, 2-1, to a guy who went 1-3 and took eighth. Not great. Mayfield is a three-time NCAA qualifier, but he’ll need an at-large to qualify this year.
174 pounds, Cam Steed: Went 4-0, Big 12 champ. Steed improved on his runner-up finish from last year by outscoring his opponents 41-17 this week. Now he’ll aim to improve on last year’s seventh-place NCAA finish in Cleveland in two weeks.
184 pounds, Aeoden Sinclair: Went 4-0, Big 12 champ. Another dominant showing from the super-dominant redshirt freshman. He will be one of the favorites to win the whole thing at the NCAA Championships.
197 pounds, Evan Bates: Went 0-2, did not place. Odd showing from the 6-seed, who gave up 12 points in a first-round loss, then 11 points in a wrestleback loss. He’ll need an at-large to become a three-time NCAA qualifier.
285 pounds, Jarrett Stoner: Went 3-2, took fifth. Good weekend overall from Stoner. His only losses came to Oklahoma State’s Konner Doucet, the runner-up, and Arizona State’s David Szuba, who took third. In his three wins, he scored six takedowns. He punched above his 7-seed and earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships.