Jan. 13, 2012

HAMPTON, Va. - The top-seeded Missouri wrestling team opened up the Virginia Duals with a 24-9 victory over North Dakota State on Friday afternoon, moving them into Saturday's semifinal bout. The No. 9 Tigers received a first round bye, while North Dakota State advanced into the second round with a 30-9 win over Campbell. Mizzou is now 7-1 in duals this season. #recapbox {background-color:#CCCCCC; padding:0.5em 0 1em 0; margin:0 0 1em 1em; width: 320px; float:right; border:#CC9900 solid 1px} #recapboxfb {background-color:#CCCCCC; padding:0.5em 0; margin:0 0 1em 1em; width: 390px; float:right; border:#CC9900 solid 1px} #recapphoto {padding:0; margin:1em 0; border-top:#000000 solid 1px; border-bottom:#000000 solid 1px} #recaptable {padding:1em 1em 0 1em} .center {text-align: center;} .teams {background-color:#cc9900; color:#000000; font-weight:bold; text-align:left} .headerblack {background-color:#000000; color:#CC9900; font-weight:bold; text-align:center} .headergold {background-color:#cc9900; color:#000000; font-weight:bold; text-align:center}

The Tigers opened up a 6-0 lead with wins at 125 and 133 to start the dual. No. 3 Alan Waters picked up his fifth win over a top-20 opponent this season, defeating No. 19 Trent Sprinkle by a 4-2 decision. Sophomore Eric Wilson improved to 2-0 in duals on the year by defeating Justin Solberg 4-2 in sudden victory. The two were scoreless after two periods before Wilson got an escape after starting the third on bottom. Solberg then landed a takedown but was hit with a locked hands penalty in the process, evening the score at 2-2 at the end of regulation. Wilson hit a takedown in the one minute sudden death period to pull out the win.

North Dakota State got on the board with a decision at 141 pounds to make it 6-3 before No. 20 Kyle Bradley scored an 8-1 victory over Mark Erickson at 149. Bradley hit a takedown in each period, along with a third period escape and the riding time point to improve to 5-3 in duals this season. The Bison made it 9-6 with a 4-1 win at 157.

At 165, No. 20 Zach Toal landed takedowns in each of the first two periods and was able to score a reversal after starting the third on bottom, defeating Tyler Johnson by a 6-1 decision. No. 10 Patrick Wright picked up the first bonus points of the day at 174, defeating Kurtis Julson 15-3 for the major decision. Wright opened up with a first period takedown and a near fall, and escaped and took Julson down again in the second. In the third, Wright hit three takedowns to get the bonus points.

Making his first career dual start for Missouri, junior Clarence Neely took Mac Stoll to overtime but fell by a 5-4 final in tiebreakers. Tied 4-4 after regulation, Stoll was able to escape after starting the first tiebreaker on bottom. Stoll rode Neely out in the second half of the tiebreaker, giving him the win.

Mizzou wrapped up the day with a pair of wins at 197 and heavyweight. No. 11 Brent Haynes stayed hot, recording his sixth technical fall of the year with an 18-0 second period win over John Gusewelle. Haynes took Gusewelle down early and turned him to his back twice for six more first period points. In the second, Haynes escaped after starting down and hit another takedown. From there, he turned Gusewelle two more times to close out the match and put the Tigers up 21-9.

Redshirt freshman Devin Mellon defeated Evan Knutson by a 6-3 decision in the final bout of the afternoon. Mellon took Knutson down twice in the first period and picked up the riding time point, as he improved to 12-6 on the year.

Missouri moves on to face No. 23 Edinboro, the No. 4 seed in the tournament, tomorrow in the semifinals at 1 p.m. CT. The Tigers are 2-1 all-time against the Fighting Scots. Live video is provided for free courtesy of USA Wrestling, and a link can be found on the sidebar at mutigers.com. Missouri's official Twitter feed, @MizzouWrestling, will also tweet results and match updates.