Big 12 Predictions
The Big 12 brackets dropped on Monday and the tournament kicks off this weekend starting on Friday. Based on seeds and automatic qualifying spots, the Tigers are seeded to get qualifiers at 133, 149, 165, 174, 184, and 197. They’re one spot short at 285 and two at 157. They also have unseeded wrestlers at 125 and 141 but some very solid draws. While it’s never easy to make predictions in a chaotic tournament, I wrote out where I expect Mizzou wrestlers to finish.
125lbs: Automatic Qualifying Spots – 5
Only five spots at this weight means that a number of quality ranked wrestlers may miss out on NCAA’s this season. There are eight ranked wrestlers, including Mauger who is unseeded. His first round match is one of only two seeded wrestlers he hasn’t already wrestled in Tucker Owens. A 2023 qualifier, Owens struggled last season but bounced back this season with multiple ranked wins. He’s had solid wins and can be good in scrambles but has some losses where he’s struggled on bottom. If Mauger is wrestling his best he can win this match, but it’s not an easy one.
I have him beating Owens then dropping a rematch with returning finalist Troy Spratley. Then on the backside he’ll see An’ee Vigil, a two-time JUCO champ at 125 who’s entered the lineup late in the year. He beat Conrad Hendriksen recently, showing that he can be dangerous in matches. I’m sticking with Mauger in this one but again he’ll need to be offensive and scoring. Then I expect him to get a rematch with Conrad Hendriksen, where he lost in OT. Whoever wins would put themselves in a chance to qualify and if Mauger is winning these matches then he can win the rematch.
From there he could get a rematch with Jett Strickenberger, who I have losing to Stevo Poulin. It was a tight 4-1 match in the dual but Strickenberger tends to be better in tournaments so I have Mauger losing and going to the 5th place match. There I have him in a rematch with Brady Roark, a match he was winning until Roark hit a Winn-dixie for seven points at the Tiger Style Invite. Again I think Mauger can flip that result.
Mauger has had a tough run lately but I’m very high on his talent and skillset. He could drop that first match to Owens, but could still wrestle back to place top five. This weight feels very likely to have some funky results and upsets, and I’m taking Mauger to be the unseeded one to shake things up.
