Tigers Struggle in Oklahoma
Missouri visited the Sooner state on a three win streak but dropped back to back duals to fall to 5-9. With one dual remaining, nine losses are the most in a season since 2001 where they went 7-10-1; it was also the last year they had a losing record. They dropped the first official unofficial “SEC Championships” dual against Oklahoma, dropping all of the tossup matches. That carried into the much more difficult OK State dual, where a Josh Edmond win over a backup was the lone bright spot. I’ll dive into some of the takeaways from a tough weekend.
- Close losses continue to define this season.
Throughout the year in duals and individual matches Mizzou has struggled in close matches. They don’t wrestle poorly necessarily, but typically struggle to score and put up points to win. That was huge this weekend, as they had great opportunities in their first four lightweights in both duals but went 1-7.
Gage Walker continues to struggle to find any neutral offense, with Lorenzo choosing to take neutral in the third and Spratley getting a reversal in the second. Kade Moore was in both of his matches against very solid opponents, but struggled to find consistent takedown entries. Josh Edmond beat his OK State backup, but gave up a takedown with two seconds left to be upset by a dangerous Mosha Schwartz. Logan Gioffre took Willie McDougald to OT like last season but was unable to get the winning takedown this year. Then against Carter Young he had good movement and handfighting, but didn’t get in on a shot until the third period.