Dec. 17, 2010

Complete Notes | Live Blog | Mizzou-Eastern Michigan Live Scoring

The No. 18 Missouri Tigers compete in their last duals of 2010 this Sunday, Dec. 19, when they travel to the state of Indiana for the second straight weekend to face off against the Indiana Hoosiers and the Eastern Michigan Eagles at University Gymnasium in Bloomington, Ind.  Missouri and Eastern Michigan get started at 11 a.m. CT, while Mizzou will take on Indiana at approximately 1 p.m. CT.

The Tigers are winners of three of their last four duals and four of their last six overall, with both losses coming by just three points.  During that time, senior Todd Schavrien and freshman Alan Waters are both 6-0.  Waters, who is 20-0 overall on the year as a true freshman, won all six matches by decision, while Schavrien, who is 8-2 on the year, took four of those matches by decisions while winning the other two by major decision.

Scouting Eastern Michigan
The Eastern Michigan Eagles come to the Indiana Duals with a 3-2 record on the season.  The Eagles opened their dual season at the Sprawl and Brawl duals in Binghamton, N.Y. and went 2-1 on the day, picking up a 24-22 win over Harvard and a 42-0 shutout victory over Sacred Heart before falling to Binghamton by a 29-6 score.  They bounced back with a 38-3 win over Cleveland State in their home opener, but were knocked off last weekend by Northwestern, 34-3.  Head Coach Derek DelPorto is now in his fifth year as head coach of EMU.

Eastern Michigan has a relatively young team this season, with just one senior in the starting lineup to go with four redshirt freshmen and two sophomores.  Junior Filiberto Colon has the best record amongst starters, as he's 9-3 at 133 pounds.  Junior Corey Phillips is 6-2 at 149, while junior heavyweight Wes Schroeder posts the same record.  At 197, redshirt freshman Nick Whitenburg is 7-3.  This will be the first ever meeting between these two teams

Scouting Indiana
The Hoosiers come into the Indiana Duals with a 6-1 record, as their six-match winning streak to open the season was just snapped this past Wednesday.  Indiana opened the year with wins over Wabash, The Citadel and Columbia before sweeping the Hoosier Duals at the end of November, defeating UNC Greensboro, Old Dominion and Northern Illinois.  After finishing 16th at the 2010 Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational, the Hoosiers fell 28-9 to No. 9 Northwestern.  The Hoosiers are led by Duane Goldman, now in his 19th year as Indiana's head coach.

Five of Indiana's 10 starters find themselves ranked in one of the four major individual polls, led by No. 6 Kurt Kinser at 149 pounds.  Kinser, a senior, is followed by fellow senior Paul Young, who is No. 10 at 157.  The 197 pound matchup appears to be the marquee contest of the day, as Mizzou's Brent Haynes, who ranks in at No. 6, will go up against Indiana's Matt Powless, who is 12-1 on the year and ranks eighth in the class.  Also ranked for Indiana are heavyweight Ricky Alcala, who is No. 23, and No. 25 Matt Ortega at 133.

This will be the 19th meeting between the two programs, with the Hoosiers holding an 11-7 edge over the Tigers.  These two teams last met during the 2007-08 season, with the Tigers winning 22-18.

Follow Live
Live scoring will be available for both matches, while MUTigers.com will also host a live blog for the second straight week.  Links can be found on the sidebar on the wrestling page at mutigers.com.

What's Next
Missouri gets back to action after Christmas when they head to The Midlands tournament in Evanston, Ill.  The two-day event gets underway on Wednesday, Dec. 29 and concludes on Thursday, Dec. 30.  Last season, the Tigers finished fourth as a team and had seven grapplers place in the top-eight of their class.

New Look at 157
This weekend, the Tigers will feature someone at 157 pounds who will make their first career dual start in the black and gold.  Sophomores Nick Gregoris and Joshua Cyr are listed at probables for the 157 pound class, and both would be making their first career dual start.  Gregoris has won two opens this year at 165 pounds and is 10-0, while Cyr is 4-6 on the year.  Whoever wrestles at 157 will have a tough opponent in front of them in the Indiana dual, as the Hoosiers' Paul Young ranks in at No. 10 in the country.

Haynes Returns to Lineup
For the first time this season, sophomore 197-pounder Brent Haynes will find himself in the starting lineup.  Haynes, who ranks as high as No. 6 in the country still, has competed unattached in three open tournaments this year.  The 2010 NCAA qualifier won all three and is 12-0 on the season, winning seven of those by fall.

Waters Stays Perfect
When Alan Waters came to Mizzou, people knew the Tigers were going to finally have that top grappler at the 125 pound mark that they've longed for.  However, no one probably expected the true freshman to have this big of an impact this early.  The four-time state champion has put together a 20-0 record so far this season, as he's won all 10 of his dual matches he's wrestled in while capturing two tournament titles, winning at the Lindenwood Open and the Central Missouri Open.  Last monht, he defeated then-No. 21 Steve Bonanno of Hofstra by a 2-1 decision and then-No. 10 Jason Lara of Oregon State by a 3-2 score.  At the Northeast Duals, Waters had a perfect 4-0 day, scoring four decisions to improve to 18-0 overall and 8-0 in duals.  Two weekends ago he had his biggest challenge yet, going up against No. 5 Nic Bedelyon of Kent State.  A two-point nearfall in the second period helped secure a 3-1 victory for Waters, his 19th win of the season.  Waters picked up win number 20 last weekend at Purdue, when he knocked off his opponent by a 6-0 score.  After starting the season unranked, Waters is now up to as high as No. 6 in the country in the major polls.

Tigers Edged Out By Purdue
The No. 16 Missouri Tigers (6-4) saw their three match winning streak come to an end on Sunday, as they fell to No. 21 Purdue (3-0-1) by a score of 18-15.  Missouri held a 12-7 lead after six matches, but the Boilermakers picked up 11 points over the next three matches to take control.

Missouri jumped out to an early 3-0 lead on freshman Alan Waters' 20th win of the season.  Waters knocked off No. 30 Camden Eppert by a 6-0 decision, keeping his perfect record intact.  The freshman got out to a 3-0 lead after the first period, getting a point when his opponent was called for an illegal lock before scoring a takedown.  Waters started down in the second and reversed Eppert, and rode him out in the third for the riding time point.

The Tigers took wins at 141, 149 and 165, however, Purdue was able to take control of the match, getting three straight wins at 174-184-197, including two by bonus points.  After a 2-1 decision by Luke Manuel over Dorian Henderson at 174, Purdue's A.J. Kissel, ranked 10th, scored a major at 184, as did No. 7 Logan Brown at 197, to take an 18-12 lead.

Heavyweight Dom Bradley won his 11th match of the year, winning by a 7-3 decision over Roger Vukobratovich, but Purdue would hold on to take the dual, 18-15.

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