March 18, 2004

St. Louis, Mo. - Three Missouri wrestlers will advance to Friday's 10 a.m. quarterfinals. Seniors Jeremy Spates (149) and Kenny Burleson (157) along with redshirt freshman Ben Askren took big wins for the Tigers inside the Savvis Center in St. Louis. Missouri currently sits tied at 15th place of the team standings with 13 points. Oklahoma State moved to first (30 points) and Illinois follows in second (28 points). At the conclusion of session one, Missouri was in 22nd place.

"It's been a pretty good day for Missouri wrestling," head coach Brian Smith said. "Of course we would have liked to have seen all five of our qualifiers advance, but both (Matt) Pell and (Jeff) Foust had hard matches with top-ranked opponents. I'm proud of the way that (Jeremy) Spates, (Kenny) Burleson and (Ben) Askren wrestled today. All three wins were big for us, and should help provide the confidence we need going into tomorrow's matches."

Wrestling against Big 12 opponent Jeff Ecklof of Oklahoma, Jeremy Spates held on for a 3-2 win to advance to Friday's, 149-pound quarterfinals. Ecklof managed to put the first points of the match on the scoreboard, landing an early takedown. With energy to spare, Spates took his first of three escapes, holding Ecklof scoreless in the second period. After two injury timeouts by Ecklof, he had little left to offer and Spates was able to revenge his prior 4-2 loss to Ecklof from the March 6, Big 12 Championships. Spates' two wins on the day helped push him over the 100 career-win mark and sets his record at 102-36 with a season record of 24-6. SESSION I: Jeremy Spates (MU) technical fall Deonte Penn (Edinboro): 17-0, 5:54 UP NEXT FOR SPATES: (two-seed) Zack Esposito of Oklahoma State

Senior Kenny Burleson wrestled simultaneously with Spates, taking on Purdue's Brad Harper on mat seven. Fifth seeded Burleson and 12th seeded Harper went scoreless through the first three minutes of competition, with Burleson taking an escape at 1:42, followed by a takedown with 48 seconds remaining in the second period. Harper came back with a takedown in the third period, but Burleson retaliated with a reversal to win the match in the form of a 5-2 decision. SESSION I:Kenny Burleson (MU) decision Matt Nagel (Minnesota): 8-3 UP NEXT FOR BURLESON: (four seed) Jake Percival of Ohio

This is the first time that either senior has advanced as far as the quarterfinal rounds.

Redshirt freshman Ben Askren's first appearance at an NCAA Championship was exactly 2:12 long. Taking Missouri's first fall of the day, Askren put Pennsylvania's Matt Herrington on his back for a three-point nearfall and the eventual pin. The last Missouri wrestler to score a pin at the NCAA Championships was heavyweight Kevin Herron in 2003. Dropping John Paxton of Army in 5:26, Herron set the current Missouri season-high falls mark at 18 pins. With Askren's 17th season fall in today's match, he stands just two shy from breaking the 2003 record. SESSION I: Bye UP NEXT FOR ASKREN: (three-seed) Brad Dillon of Lehigh

Askren's fellow redshirt freshman teammate Matt Pell suffered his first loss of the day. After winning two matches in the first session, Pell met at center circle with Matt Frick of Lehigh. Coming off of a win by fall in 6:59, Frick scored two takedowns in the first period to Pell's one escape. Pell held Frick scoreless in the second period, bringing his point total to within one after an early second period escape. With a final escape in the third period, Frick was able to hold onto the lead and win the 5-3 decision. SESSION I: Matt Pell (MU) decision John Davis (UTC): 4-1 Matt Pell (MU) decision Luke Calvert (Army): 6-3 UP NEXT FOR PELL: Not Available At Time of Send

Closing out the night for Missouri was sophomore Jeff Foust. Competing in front of a hometown crowd, Foust wrestled Reggie Lee of Harvard scoring a takedown in the first period and escape in the second. Lee was only able to manage two escapes, giving Foust the 3-2 win. Foust will SESSION I: Ryan Bader (Arizona State) major decision Jeff Foust (MU): 7-0 UP NEXT FOR FOUST: Not Available at Time of Send

Session three of the Division I NCAA Championships will begin at 10 a.m. Friday morning with quarterfinals and wrestleback rounds.

Missouri Results:
149: Jeremy Spates (MU) dec Jeff Ecklof (Oklahoma): 3-2
157: Kenny Burleson (MU) dec Brad Harper (Purdue): 5-2
174: Ben Askren (MU) fall Matt Herrington (Pennsylvania): 2:12
184: Travis Frick (Lehigh) dec Matt Pell (MU):
197: Jeff Foust (MU) dec Reggie Lee (Harvard): 3-2