Tiger Style took a trip to Tulsa, Oklahoma, for the National Duals Invitational. 15 of the 16 teams at the bracket-style duals tournament were ranked in the top 30 coming into the event, Mizzou holding the No. 17 spot. After losing its initial dual, the Tigers cruised in the consolation bracket to an eighth-place finish and earned a $20,000 cash prize.
All rankings are according to InterMat.
Iowa Dual
The No. 3-ranked Hawkeyes were Mizzou’s competition in the first round Saturday. Iowa proved why it was ranked so
high coming into the invite, taking down Mizzou 34-3. Six of the Hawkeyes’ wins were by narrow decisions, showing that the dual was closer than the final score relayed.
Despite being a higher-ranked team and blowing out the Tigers in the opening round, Iowa only had seven ranked wrestlers compete compared to Mizzou’s nine. Some of those wrestlers were simply ranked higher, but there were also a fair share of upsets in the dual.
No. 6 Joshua Edmond was upset by unranked Ryder Block at 149lbs, and No. 15 Evan Bates suffered one of two Mizzou losses by fall in his bout with No. 16 Massoma Endene. Tiger Style fans got their first look at No. 1-ranked Illinois high school wrestler Seth Mendoza. He wrestled outside of his normal weight class at 157lbs and lost by an 8-1 decision to No. 11 Jordan Williams.
No. 25 Jarrett Stoner took the lone individual win of the dual with a 2-0 decision win over unranked Gage Marty. Mizzou’s worst performance of the tournament came at the beginning, showing the team’s bounce-back ability.
Little Rock Dual
After losing in round one, Mizzou moved to a dual with the No. 25-ranked Trojans in the consolation bracket. Little Rock participated in the Missouri Duals as well, making this a familiar opponent. The Tigers came back from their blowout loss to put on a beatdown of their own, winning 34-6.
The only two Mizzou wrestlers to lose in the dual were unranked Joel Mylin at 165lbs and No. 15 Evan Bates at 197 lbs – both in shutout decisions. Mylin finished the day 0-2, and Bates went 3-2.
After No. 8 Aeoden Sinclair lost in a 3-2 tiebreaker decision against Iowa’s No. 3 Angelo Ferrari at 184lbs, he had another ranked opponent to deal with in Little Rock’s No. 29 Brock DelSignore. The redshirt freshman’s pure technique shone in the bout en route to a 15-6 major decision win.
At 174lbs, No. 13 Cam Steed took home the fastest pin of the tournament for the Tigers against unranked Gunner Holland. This came after a great round one showing against No. 2 Patrick Kennedy, which ended in a 6-4 decision loss.
Michigan Dual
Round two of the consolation bracket brought a faceoff with No. 8 Michigan. Although the Tigers were the underdogs, they overcame their lower ranking and convincingly won 26-10. Despite the final team scores, it was one of the most exciting matchups of the day – seven of the individual bouts were wins by decision.
No. 28 Mack Mauger and Steed both took upset victories in the dual. At 125lbs, Mauger pinned No. 20 Diego Sotelo in one minute, 35 seconds, the only win by fall for Mizzou over the Wolverines. Steed took a 5-3 decision win at 174lbs against No. 11 Beau Mantanona.
In the closest bout of the day, No. 20 Kade Moore took down unranked Gauge Botero in a 10-9 decision at 133lbs. The redshirt junior finished the invite with a 3-2 record, his best win coming against Botero.
Mendoza continued his inaugural tournament at 157lbs and picked up a 7-1 decision win against No. 30 Cam Catrabone. This was the true freshman’s second win of the invite, the first coming against Little Rock’s No. 30 Jaivon Jones in an 11-3 major decision win.
Minnesota Dual
The Tigers found themselves in the semifinals of the consolation bracket with No. 10 Minnesota on the other side. In what proved to be the most competitive dual of the tournament, the winner was decided by the last bout of the competition. Each bout went back-and-forth between the two teams until Mizzou took a 14-12 lead after having three straight wins from 174lbs to 197lbs.
Stoner had a must-win heavyweight bout with No. 15 Koy Hopke to decide which team moves on to the consolation final. It was an uphill battle for the redshirt sophomore, and he could never get on the offensive, losing by a 5-0 decision.
After a slow first two rounds of the invite for No. 15, 197lbs wrestler Evan Bates, he took wins in rounds three and four. He faced a strong opponent against Minnesota in No. 17 Gavin Nelson and held control in all three rounds to a 7-3 decision win.
Every single individual match was a win by decision for each side. It was clear from their dual with the Golden Gophers that the Tigers have more strength in their higher weight classes.
Illinois Dual
Mizzou battled No. 12 Illinois for seventh place and a $25,000 cash prize. The Fighting Illini won at will against the Tigers, and the final score of 28-16 was only close because of forfeits in the 197 and 285 weight classes.
Speaking of forfeits, Steed had to medically forfeit from his bout with unranked Colin Kelly 24 seconds into it due to getting “knocked down pretty bad,” per head coach Brian Smith. Steed finished the tournament with a 3-2 record.
Unranked Easton Hilton made his first appearance in the final dual of the tournament at 149lbs. He faced unranked Will Baysingar, and the score was knotted at 1-1 heading into the tiebreaker. Baysingar was awarded the clinching point to take the 2-1 decision victory over Hilton.
At 141lbs, No. 19 Zeke Seltzer took one of two earned wins for Mizzou. The redshirt junior took his final bout of the invite by a 5-1 decision against unranked Cole Brower. Seltzer continued his season of improved wrestling by taking a 3-2 record at the invite.
The Tigers will have a chance at revenge against Illinois in their first solo dual event of the season, Nov. 24. Hearnes Center is the host site for the top-20 clash beginning at 6:30 p.m.
