Nov. 23, 2011
The No. 9 Missouri wrestling squad continues their road trip this weekend when they head west for a pair of Pac-12 matchups. On Friday, Missouri will take on No. 18 Oregon State at 9 p.m. CT, while the Tigers will square off with No. 22 Stanford at 2 p.m. CT on Sunday afternoon.
Live stats for the Mizzou-Oregon State dual will be available at mutigers.com, while live audio and video will be available for a fee at osubeavers.com. Additionally, fans can get live match-by-match results by following the Mizzou Wrestling Twitter page, @MizzouWrestling. Live stats and video will not be available for the dual against Stanford.
SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
Oregon State is currently 2-0 on the season and ranked 18th in the latest NWCA/USA Today Division I Coaches Poll. They return five of their seven NCAA Championship qualifiers from the 2010-11 season, highlighted by Mike Mangrum, who ranks No. 5 in the nation at 141 pounds. Their victories this season have come over Simon Fraser by a 44-6 final and a 32-10 win over Pac-12 foe Boise State.
Also returning for the Beavers are No. 8 Scott Sakaguchi, a sophomore 149 pounder who is 7-0 on the season. Heavyweight Clayton Jack is the lone senior in the lineup and ranks eighth in the class. A trio of redshirt freshmen in Pat Rollins (125), James Roberts (133) and Taylor Meeks (197) enter the lineup this season.
Head Coach Jim Zalesky leads the Beavers and is in his sixth year at Oregon State. He's 66-26-2 at Oregon State and 183-52-2 overall as a head coach.
Missouri and Oregon State have met three times in the past. The Tigers won the first two matchups but dropped last year's contest by a 19-13 margin in Columbia.
MATCHUPS TO WATCH
• 133: No. 13 Nathan McCormick vs. James Roberts - McCormick is 2-0 on the year with two impressive victories and ranked 13th in the country according to Intermat. Roberts is a redshirt freshman and is a perfect 8-0 on the season. Of those wins, five were wins by fall and two were major decisions. His lone decision came in a 5-3 final over teammate Jason Lara in the Best of the West finals.
• 149: No. 15 Kyle Bradley vs. No. 8 Scott Sakaguchi - Bradley goes against his third ranked opponent in as many duals when he faces No. 8 Scott Sakaguchi, who is 7-0 on the year. These two met in the dual last year in Columbia, where Bradley pulled out a 5-3 sudden victory win.
• 197: No. 12 Brent Haynes vs. Taylor Meeks - Haynes gets one of Oregon State's three redshirt freshman in the lineup in Meeks, who is 8-0 in his first year as a starter. He's recorded wins by fall in both of his dual victories and has four wins by fall on the season in all.
• HWT: Devin Mellon vs. No. 8 Clayton Jack - Mellon's split his first two matches by 6-4 decisions, while Jack is 7-0 on the year and ranked eighth in the country. The Oregon State senior, who won the Pac-12 title last year and made NCAA's in each of his first three seasons, is an intriguing early season matchup for Mellon.
SCOUTING THE CARDINAL
The No. 22 ranked Stanford Cardinal are currently riding a two-game skid after winning their four previous duals. They opened their season with a 27-8 loss at Northwestern, but bounced back with wins over North Central College, Northern Illinois, Cal State Bakersfield and Menlo College. Last weekend, however, the Cardinal fell to Central Michigan, 22-13, and Chattanooga, 22-15.
Stanford returns half of last year's starting lineup and two of their three All-Americans from last season. Senior Nick Amuchastegui is the No. 1 ranked wrestler at 174 pounds. He's a two-time All-American and was last year's runner-up at 174. The other returning All-American is Ryan Mango, a 133 pound junior who currently ranks fifth in the nation.
Cardinal head coach Jason Borrelli is in his fourth season at the helm and has a career record of 28-29-3. Missouri and Stanford have met just one time in the past, coming in 2005 in Kansas City where the Tigers coasted to a 32-8 victory.
MATCHUPS TO WATCH
• 133: #13 Nathan McCormick vs. No. 5 Ryan Mango - McCormick goes up against a top-five wrestler in the class, who is 7-0 in duals this season with two wins by fall. McCormick and Mango have never faced off, as Mango, a St. Louis native, spent the last two seasons wrestling at 125 pounds.
• 174: No. 5 Dorian Henderson vs. No. 1 Nick Amuchastegui - Henderson gets his shot at the highest rated 174 pounder in the nation. Amuchastegui has scored bonus points in all seven of his matches, winning four times by major, once by technical fall and twice by pin. Henderson and Amuchastegui have never faced off.
FOLLOW LIVE
Live stats for the Mizzou-Oregon State dual will be available at mutigers.com, while live audio and video will be available for a fee at osubeavers.com. Additionally, fans can get live match-by-match results by following the Mizzou Wrestling Twitter page, @MizzouWrestling. Live stats will not be available for the dual against Stanford.
WHAT'S NEXT
Missouri takes a break from dual action as they get set to compete at the Kaufman/Brand Open, held in St. Louis, on Sunday, Dec. 4. The following Friday, Mizzou will travel to Kent State for a dual meet that begins at 6:05 p.m. CT.
WRIGHT, NEELY WIN OPEN TITLES
Twenty-three members of the Missouri wrestling team competed at the Joe Parisi Wrestling Open over the weekend, hosted by Lindenwood University. Of those 23 grapplers, nine earned places in the top-four of their weight class, with senior Patrick Wright (174) and junior Clarence Neely (184) finishing in first place to lead the way for Missouri.
Finishing in second place for Missouri was Kellen Bounous at 149 pounds. Taking third on the day were Jordan Gagliano (165) and Todd Porter (174). Eric Wilson (133), Ty Prazma (165), Johnny Eblen (184) and Ryan Robinson (197) each finished in fourth place in their respective classes. The tournament did not record fifth or sixth place finishes, of which Missouri would have had three.
TIGERS FALL TO NO. 12 SOONERS, 19-18
The No. 9 Missouri wrestling team fell behind early against the No. 12 Oklahoma Sooners and couldn't overcome the deficit as they dropped the Big 12 Conference opener on Friday night. Missouri had to forfeit the 125 pound match and the Sooners would win three of the next four matches to jump ahead. Nathan McCormick knocked off No. 11 Jordan Keller to cut the lead in half, but OU recorded 10 points with three straight wins to go up 16-6. Missouri took four of the last five with wins by Zach Toal, Dorian Henderson and Devin Mellon, along with a forfeit at 197 pounds, but Oklahoma's win by No. 18 Erich Schmidtke at 184 sealed the victory for Oklahoma.
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