Nov. 24, 2008
Hello Missouri wrestling fans. It was a great weekend to be a Tiger and I am very proud of our performances. The weekend started on Saturday as we hosted Hofstra. There were over two thousand (fans) in attendance. This was a victory in itself, and I thank you all for your support.
The dual was very exciting, as Hofstra brought some really, really tough kids who were hungry for a victory on the road. We started the dual at 125 pounds and we were quickly down 12-0 going into the 149 pound match as Andrew Sherry stepped onto the mat in the black and gold singlet with David Bowie sounding off as his intro music. Sherry, in my opinion, had the best performance overall. He went in, controlled the whole match, and got the win for the Tigers...not to mention a few "ooh and ahhs" as he blast doubled his Hofstra opponent at least twice. From 149-HWT, we swept the Pride, with bonus points scored at 157 and Dorian Henderson with an impressive display of quick twitch muscles. Dorian hit the sweetest ankle pick I have ever seen, in my life.....I'd say it was the fastest ankle pick his opponent had ever seen, but I really don't think he saw it at all. All of the sudden, his foot was above his head and he had fallen to his back in the blink of an eye. Raymond Jordan's match at 184 was a nail biter...luckily for me and the rest of the team, we knew there was no way he would lose, but it was a close match nonetheless. I'm sure his match had many of the fans on the edge of their seats...just take it easy, "Ray J" WILL NOT LOSE THIS YEAR! I'm predicting it right now! The final score of the dual was 22-12, which was pretty dominant if you ask me. Afterall, Hofstra did just beat seventh-ranked Penn State last week and they are known for being a really, really good dual team. I was really pleased with our performance.
Now lets talk about the Missouri Open. The day started with the Freshman and Sophomore division at 9 a.m. The F/S division was much bigger than the Open division. I remember one point in the day where a few of our younger guys had three matches in before I had even wrestled once. Our freshman and sophomores battled hard, and each had a hard road to get to the placing matches. The results are posted below and I will highlight on as many as I can. The 133 lb weight class was dominated by Missouri, with freshmen (Taylor) Crane and (Nathan) McCormick in the finals against each other. They both battled hard, and Crane was the victor to claim his first of I'm sure many Missouri Open titles. Nick Hucke used his funky tactics, and fearless game plan to fight his way to a championship. Cody Farinella, "held it down for the STL" with a third place finish for the Tigers. Another champion came at 157, as one of my favorite workout partners, Nicky Gregoris showed up and dominated. He was one of the guys who had three matches in before I even had one in. I bet he wrestled 6 times, and he didn't slow down a bit. His best performance was a 14-4 "stomping" in the finals over Brian Oeschner of Lindenwood. I tell Gregoris all the time that he s going to be way better than I am, and I can't wait to see him in the future. I'll get to say, `I beat up on that national champ when I was a seasoned veteran and he was just "a baby" at 18 years old.' Claiming third place at 165 was Todd Porter, I can go on for days about this kid, and I think you all already know I have a soft spot for him and he's like my little brother. Todd has made more gains than anyone else on the team thus far. The scary thing is that he doesn't even notice it. I'm pretty sure he saw a glimpse of it yesterday when he avenged a loss from the Lindenwood Open. I was on his corner, and got the privilege of watching him completely control Donald Woods from Meramec and take him down with three very slick shots. Just three short weeks ago, Porter lost to Woods and yesterday proves that this kid will make gains like few others. To top off the list of freshman, is 184 pounder and blue chip recruit Brent Haynes. Haynes has proven that he is a terror on top, and can turn virtually anyone that get gets a hold of and with a little work on his takedowns and hand fighting, he'll be an unstoppable force for us in the years to come. Be on the lookout for him to do great things for us.
The Open division, although not as large, was full of talent. In these types of tournaments, it's not about the quantity, but the quality of the brackets that counts. Coach Smith tries to get us the best competition we can get. We competed against the likes of Oklahoma State, Hofstra, Indiana, UTC, Oklahoma, Cal Poly, Illinois and I know he invites many other teams, but many choose not to come.....possibly out of fear, but I don't blame them. Our lightweights, Troy Dolan, and Todd Schavrien really stepped it up and both placed. Dolan avenged his loss from Saturday by beating the Hofstra kid, and I watched Schavrien really taking it to a lot of guys as well. When these two guys are on the top of their game, they are scary dudes. I'm looking forward to seeing them develop and gain confidence throughout the year. Another Tiger who did a really great job was Marcus Hoehn. Hoehn was coming off a heartbreaking loss on Saturday, in a match which he felt he should have won but just couldn't put anything together. We all have those matches, and the truth is, they are really hard to deal with. Marcus got that weight off of his chest Sunday as he wrestled his way all the way to a third place finish. It was great to see a smile on his face as we were cleaning the mats up after the tournament...after all, a confident wrestler, is a great wrestler. The O'Fallon native Brandon Wiest also had a good showing at the tournament. I watched a few of his matches, and he really knows how to scrap. He's got some slick stuff. I think I need to get some extra drilling in with him to pick up on some of his ankle picks. I claimed my second straight Missouri Open title at 157. I feel like I had a pretty good day overall, and it felt good to get a few more wins under my belt. The real hero at 157 for the Tigers was Pat Wright. Pat drew #15 ranked (Jonny) Bonilla-Bowman (of Hofstra) in the second round and controlled him 12-8. He also had a few other close matches that could have gone his way with just a few minor adjustments. But the big thing is that he proved, once again that he is a scrapper and can finish a tournament strong. Look for Pat to do great things for us in the future. Raymond Jordan, dropping down a weight class from last year's Missouri Open, claimed the title with a much more decisive win over Alton Lucas from Hofstra. Raymond did not want to keep it as close as it was on Saturday and controlled the tempo of the match and shut Lucas down. I believe Raymond won by about 3 points. It was a great match to watch. Dorian Henderson claimed fifth at 184 and Max Askren took second place at 197. The heavyweights all showed up ready to wrestle on Sunday. Ellis won the tournament by beating eighth ranked John Wise (of Illinois) in the finals. Ellis kept the pace high and was down by a takedown going into the third period. Ellis was persistent with his attacks and scored a takedown with 20 seconds left to win the match. He did a great job of keeping his composure and focusing on the task at hand to get the job done. Red shirt freshman Dom Bradley finished third place on the day, and Tyler Perry injury defaulted to 6th place. The heavyweight competition in our room is ridiculous. It is great for these guys to be able to bang heads with each other day in and day out.
That's the recap for the weekend. I hope many of you were able to make it out and watch us. Be sure to come out and support us at our next home meet. Have a great day. God Bless.
Missouri Top Six Finishes
Freshman/Sophomore Division
|
Wt. |
Wrestler |
Finish |
|
133 |
First |
|
|
133 |
Second |
|
|
141 |
Nick Hucke |
First |
|
141 |
Third |
|
|
157 |
First |
|
|
165 |
Third |
|
| 184 | Brent Haynes | First |
Missouri Open Division
|
Wt. |
Wrestler |
Finish |
|
125 |
Fourth |
|
|
133 |
Third |
|
|
141 |
Third |
|
|
149 |
Fifth |
|
|
157 |
First |
|
|
157 |
Fifth |
|
|
174 |
First |
|
|
184 |
Dorian Henderson |
Fifth |
|
197 |
Second |
|
|
HWT |
First |
|
|
HWT |
Dominique Bradley |
Third |
|
HWT |
Sixth |