March 28, 2000
Columbia, Mo. - During the 2000 season Missouri Wrestling began to discover the winning ways of its past as it plans for the future. After a 4-9 campaign a year ago, MU put together an 11-11 mark this season, posting the most dual wins by a Missouri Wrestling team since the 1984-85 squad went 11-10. The Tigers won six straight duals in January, a streak which began with MU sweeping the Brown University Duals. That six-match win streak was the program's longest since Mizzou won the last three duals of the 1991-92 season and the first three duals of 1992-93.
Five Missouri wrestlers finished the regular season with twenty or more wins, the largest number of 20-match winners since six Tigers reached that plateua in 1994-95 season. Of those five grapplers, three Tigers--Jeff Urban, Jeremy Spates, John Kopnisky--went over the 30-win mark, becoming the first 30-win trio for Missouri since Al Morgan, Craig Martin, and Jim Handy during the 1987-88 season. Urban, Spates, and Kopnisky were also mainstays in the national rankings throughout the season. Add in the encouraging fact that every one of Missouri's six returning starters from last year, posted career-high win totals in 2000, and it is easy to understand Head Coach Brian Smith's optimism for the future of wrestling at Ol' Mizzou.
Nothing tells the story of Missouri's record better than the strength of the Tiger schedule. Of the 22 duals, 11 came versus opponents who either were ranked in the top-25 or received votes in the top-25 poll.
The season began with two of those ranked teams, as the Tiger hosted No. 3 Illinois at Hazelwood Central High School in St. Louis and No. 4 Oklahoma State at Hearnes Center. Both duals resulted in team losses but Kopnisky and fellow sophomore Kevin Herron each picked up big wins in each dual. Herron, worked his magic for a pin of No. 6-ranked Pat Quirk of Illinois, a win that started a career-year for Herron. Verus OSU, Kopnisky came through with a decision over No. 20 -ranked Tony Gansen. It was the Tiger's first career win over a nationally-ranked opponent.
After beating Lindenwood on December 10 for its first win of the season, MU nearly pulled off the upset of No. 25 Purdue on the same night in Columbia. The attempt fell short resulting in a 19-15 Purdue win. Purdue's Jake Vercelli won by tiebreaker over Missouri heavyweight Chad Hertzog in double-overtime, 1-1 to grasp the win for the visitors. One more point here or there in the dual, and MU may have had its first win over a ranked opponent in nearly five years.
Two days later, Missouri faced its third top-10 opponent of the young season, falling to No. 7 Nebraska, 32-6 at South Sioux City High School in Sioux City, Neb. The loss dropped Missouri to 1-4 with two duals remaining in the first semester.
Next up were duals with Wyoming and Indiana at Oak Grove High School in Oak Grove, Mo. Both opponents had received votes in the national polls, leaving MU with a stiff challenge. Following a 27-12 loss to Indiana, the Tigers responded versus Wyoming, handing the Cowboys their first loss of the season while closing out 1999 with a 2-5 mark of their own.
MU began the new year at the Central Michigan Duals, beating Findlay University 27-9, but then losing to No. 21 Central Michigan, 26-10 in a dual which featured battles at nearly every weight.
Then came the six-match win streak where the Tigers seemed to find the confidence in close matches that they had been searching for all season. After sweeping the Brown University Duals with three wins over Franklin & Marshall, Army, and Brown, MU tookdown Missouri Valley, Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, and Marquette. The streak was stopped by Northwestern in another match that decided by the final bout of the dual. Northwestern, which had been in and out of the national rankings, beat MU 19-17, dropping the Tigers to 9-7, though Mizzou was still on the verge of its first double-digit win total since the 1984-85 season.
A disappointing loss to Central Missouri State at Home on January 27, put MU at 9-8 with five duals remaining on the schedule. The Tiger got the coveted 10th win on February 6 with a 22-16 defeat of Eastern Illinois and headed to Iowa for duals with No. 2 Iowa State and No. 9 Northern Iowa.
MU competed well in both duals, but came home with face No. 5 Oklahoma and Northern Illinois to finish the season.
The losing streak was stretched to three straight after Oklahoma handed Missouri its 11th defeat of the season on February 16. Jeremy Spates, whose father Jack is the Oklahoma head coach, earned Missouri's lone win.
In the season's final dual, Missouri got back on track by winning six matches, including two pins, for a 24-12 victory over Northern Illinois. The Tiger ended the regular season 11-11, with five wrestlers over twenty wins, three in the national rankings and hopes of great things to come in the post-season.
At the Big 12 Conference Championships, Kopnisky became the first Tiger since Mike Harp in 1998 in reach a Big 12 final. Missouri's 174-pound sophomore earned his way to the final, and an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships, with a victory over Nebraska's Ati Conner in the semi-final round. Kopnisky was defeated by No. 1-seed, and eventual national champion, Byron Tucker of Oklahoma.
Urban and Spates earned wild card bids to the national meet on the strength of their wrestling at the conference championships. For Urban, a senior in his last season at MU, the trip to the NCAA meet would be his second consecutive, while the freshman, Spates was heading to his first NCAA experience.
The NCAA Championships provided a hometown atmosphere for Mizzou's wrestlers as the 2000 event was held at Kiel Center in St. Louis, Mo. The fans responded, as more than 700 Mizzou supporters packed the center section at Kiel Center and the Tigers gave them something to cheer about.
Though it was this first match at the national meet, Spates came through with an 8-5 upset of No. 12-seeded Nick Flach of Northern Iowa in the first round. The second round was not nearly as kind, with Spates loing a 7-4 bout to Oklahoma State's Jamill Kelly. The loss put Spates in the wrestlebacks, meaning one more loss would end his freshman seson.
Urban lost his first match to eventual national finalist Adam Tirapelle of Illinois, but the senior fought his way back through the wrestleback round, winning two matches on Thrusday to qualify for the second day of compeition.
Kopnisky struggled through the first day losing two match and was eliminated from competition ending the season with a 30-9 mark.
Urban and Spates both ran into trouble during day two. Each lost his first match of the day and were eliminated from competition.
The final standings showed Missouri in 41st place with 6 total points, a big improvement from no score at the 1999 national meet.
National qualifiers Spates and Kopnisky will return in 2000-2001 along with a host of talented Tigers, giving Coach Smith and his staff reason to believe that there is more to come in 2001.