March 7, 1999

Ames, Iowa - At the Big 12 Conference wrestling championships Saturday, Missouri earned three fourth place finishes and an NCAA wild card berth. Tigers, Jake Lapinski (125), Matt Webster (157), and Kevin Herron (197) were Missouri's representatives on the medal stand at the meet. Junior Jeff Urban was awarded one of the conference's five wild cards into the NCAA Championships based on his regular season performance when he finished 20-10 and ranked No. 19 in the nation.

The Tiger's inexperience in conference matches was a deciding point in several matches. Missouri sent nine underclassmen to the mats on Saturday, six of whom were freshmen and in their first or second year of Division I competition.

"We wrestled very young today," Smith said. "We did some things that experience teaches you not to do, unfortunately we had to get that experience today in a big meet."

Missouri's place finishers all won their first round matches, as Kevin Herron pinned Josh Cruzan of Oklahoma State, Jake Lapinski defeated Jesse West of Iowa State, 7-6 and Matt Webster won by injury defualt over Oklahoma State's Jimmy Arias. Unfortunately those matches concluded the winning for Missouri.

Urban will be the lone Missouri representative at the NCAA Championships, March 18-20 in State College, Pennsylvania hosted by Penn State. The junior will take a 20-12 record into the national meet.

Full results of the Big 12 Championships can be found at the Big 12 Conference's official website, www.big12sports.com.