COLUMBIA, Mo. - No. 25 Missouri wrestling heads to Tulsa, Oklahoma, for the 2025 Big 12 Championship on Saturday, March 8, through Sunday, March 9. Action will take place at the BOK Center, and session I will begin on Saturday at 10 a.m. CT. All the action can be streamed on ESPN+, except the finals on Sunday at 8 p.m. CT will be on ESPNU. 

REGULAR SEASON WRAPPED

• Missouri closed out the regular season 5-10 overall and 4-4 in Big 12 duals. 
• 11 of the Tigers' 15 duals were against ranked opponents, with seven of those listed in the top 15 of the NCAA. 
• Six of Missouri's 10 starters collected multiple wins over ranked opponents, with senior Keegan O'Toole leading the way with five. Josh Edmond, Colton Hawks and Seth Nitzel earned three, while Cam Steed and James Conway totaled two. 

LEADING THE PACK 

• Throughout the season, Mizzou battled key injuries and lineup changes, but the starters were still able to total 84 wins with 46 bonus-point victories. 
• Leading the Tiger starters with 14 wins was redshirt sophomore James Conway, followed by redshirt junior Josh Edmond (13) and Keegan O'Toole (12). 
• In his first year in the lineup, redshirt sophomore Cam Steed is tied for the top spot with classmate Kade Moore, securing four pins this season. 
• O'Toole totaled five technical falls prior to his absence due to injury that still leads the squad. 

O'TOOLE'S RETURN

• Senior Keegan O'Toole returned to the mat against Iowa State on Feb. 22, after sustaining an injury that sidelined the two-time champion for two months.
• The four-time All-American returned with a fall over Caden Schmidt (6:24) to close the season 12-0 with a 91.6 percent bonus rate. 
• In his previous match, Dec. 22, against No. 1 Penn State, O'Toole defeated No. 2-ranked Levi Haines in sudden victory, 4-1. 

RECENT MEMORY

• Missouri finished fourth in the conference at the 2024 Big 12 Championship with 115.5 points. 
• Keegan O'Toole clinched his second Big 12 Championship at 165 pounds, defeating Iowa State's David Carr 8-2. 
• Nine Tigers earned automatic qualification to the NCAA Tournament: Noah Surtin (125), Josh Edmond (141), Logan Gioffre (149), Brock Mauller (157), O'Toole (165), Peyton Mocco (174), Rocky Elam (197) and Zach Elam (285). 

COACHES' RANKINGS

• The Black and Gold are ranked No. 25 in the National Wrestling Coaches' Association (NWCA) Poll. 
• Mizzou has seven of 10 wrestlers ranked in the third and final NCAA Coaches' rankings. 
• Keegan O'Toole is the highest individually ranked Tiger at No. 5 at 174 pounds. 

CHAMPIONSHIP PEDIGREE

• The Tigers have won three Big 12 Conference titles in program history and 12 overall (including nine MAC Championships). 
• Individually, Missouri has had 23 title winners at the Big 12 tournament dating back to its first, Tyron Woodley, in 2003 at 165 pounds. Most recently, Keegan O'Toole claimed the top spot at 165 pounds in 2024. 
• The most Tiger Style titles in a single Big 12 Championship came in 2012 with four: Alan Waters (125), Drake Houdashelt (157), Zach Toal (165) and Mike Larson (2012). 
• Head Coach Brian Smith was named Big 12 Coach of the Year at the tournament in 2012, 2022 and 2023. 
• In 2022, O'Toole was named Big 12 Wrestler of the Year after earning his first Big 12 title at 165 pounds and completing an undefeated season (25-0). 

KEEGAN'S CROWN

• As a reigning Big 12 Champion, many wrestlers will be coming for Keegan O'Toole's crown at the conference tournament. 
• Last season, while at 165 pounds, O'Toole went 3-0 in the tournament to earn his second Big 12 title and third conference championship of his career. 
• The Hartland, Wisconsin native pinned Cooper Voorhees of Wyoming in the second period to start the tournament and followed that with a 7-1 decisive decision over Oklahoma State's Izzak Olejnik. 
• In the final, O'Toole met up with Iowa State's David Carr for the fourth time in his career. The Tiger Style legend came out on top, 8-2, evening the series between the two at 2-2. 

ALLOCATIONS

• The NCAA released pre-allocations for the 2025 tournament on Feb. 27, with the Big 12 securing 61 total. 
• The pre-allocations were determined by using a sliding scale of the three standards, win percentage, coaches' rank, and RPI ranking, while never going below the base of .700 winning percentage, top 30 coaches' ranking, and top 30 RPI ranking until reaching the maximum of 29 wrestlers per weight class. For each wrestler that reached the threshold in at least two of the three categories, his conference tournament was awarded a qualifying spot in that weight class.
• The breakdown for the Big 12 is as follows: 125: 7, 133: 6, 141: 7, 149: 4, 157: 7, 165: 7, 174: 6, 184: 7, 197: 4 and 285: 4. 

SEEDING

• Along with pre-allocations, the Big 12 Conference office announced seeding for the tournament on March 8-9. 
• Eight of Missouri's 10 starters were seeded, with Gage Walker (125) and Jesse Cassatt (197) remaining unseeded. 
• In order of highest seed to lowest: Keegan O'Toole (174 - 2nd), Seth Nitzel (285 - 4th), Cam Steed (165 - 5th), Josh Edmond (141 - 6th), Logan Gioffre (149 - 7th), James Conway (157 - 7th), Kade Moore (133 - 8th) and Colton Hawks (184 - 8th). 

MOST WINS (active, 50+) 

• Keegan O'Toole (100), Rocky Elam (70),  Noah Surtin (65) and Luqman Masud (65). 

VALUABLE VETERANS RETURN 

• Tiger Style has had its fair share of injury woes this season, competing for a large portion of 2024-25 without Noah Surtin, Rocky Elam, Keegan O'Toole and Colton Hawks. 
• Senior Noah Surtin announced his medical retirement on Dec. 13, 2024. 
• Head coach Brian Smith announced that senior Rocky Elam, who has been combating multiple injuries, will not wrestle this season on Jan. 2. 
• Classmate Keegan O'Toole had been battling an injury sustained earlier in the season and missed two months to allow him to recover as much as possible. 
• Additionally, redshirt junior Colton Hawks was injured on Jan. 12 against Stanford and missed significant time. 
• With their absence, the lineup was missing four wrestlers who have totaled 279 career wins and 152 bonus-point victories. 
• Good news for Missouri: O'Toole and Hawks made their return to the lineup at the Iowa State dual on Feb. 22 and are headed to the postseason. 

ON THE HORIZON

Missouri and its qualified wrestlers will take on the NCAA Championship starting on March 20 in Philadelphia and going through March 22. The tournament will be inside Wells Fargo Center, with all the action streamed on the ESPN family of networks.