At the end of day one of the 80th annual NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships, Missouri stands in ninth with 18. 5 points, while Iowa stands in first with 34. Big 12 Conference competitors Oklahoma State and Iowa State stand in second and third with 26 and 24 points, respectively.
Two Tiger grapplers continue in the championship bracket, seniors Mark Ellis (Peculiar, Mo.) and Maxwell Askren (Hartland, Wis.), and will wrestle Friday morning beginning at 9:30 a.m. Askren began his match a little slow, as no points were scored through the first period. However, after over 2:00 of no action, Askren got in place to secure the match. Earning a win by fall in 3:51, the pin became Max’s second of the day, and season.
Defending National Champion Mark Ellis secured a spot in Friday morning quarterfinals with a 2-1 decision over Pittsburgh’s Ryan Tomei. Ellis is now set to face conference foe David Zabriskie of Iowa State. Ellis and Zabriskie have had seven previous meetings, with Zabriskie holding a 7-0 advantage over Ellis. In their past two meetings, Ellis has closed the gap, dropping the last two matches by just one point, most recently at Big 12 Championships in Norman, Okla.
Two Tiger wrestlers dropped matches in the championship bracket to fall into the wrestlebacks bracket. Redshirt freshman Brent Haynes (Kansas City, Mo.) fell 5-2 to Wisconsin’s Trevor Brandvold, while sophomore Dorian Henderson (Columbus, Ga.) lost to conference foe Stephen Dwyer, 5-0.
Junior Todd Schavrien (Poway, Calif.) earned a 13-9 decision over Pennsylvania’s Zack Kemmerer. Schavrien struck first, earning a takedown off the whistle, to take the lead 2-0. Kemmerer escaped, and Schavrien gained two more takedowns in the first period, widening the lead to 6-2. Two takedowns, two escapes, and a riding time point later Schavrien earned a spot in the wrestleback quarterfinals where he will meet Central Michigan’s Connor Beebe.
In the last Tiger match of the evening, senior Nick Marable (Collierville, Tenn.) avenged his first round loss, with a major decision over Pennsylvania’s Stephen Burak, 16-2. Marable, now 34-4 on the season will face Central Michigan’s Tyler Grayson Friday morning in wrestlebacks.
Story courtesy of mutigers.com