James Hackney
After a gritty win at home Mizzou hits the road for three duals in January. That starts with a dual against a very tough up and coming Stanford. The team has a new head coach in Chris Ayres and has made big moves in his first year, just winning the Southern Scuffle. The team is young, with four freshmen in the starting lineup. Mizzou are big favorites, but started rough against Virginia Tech and Stanford is very well coached. If the Tigers come out slow, it could be a closer than expected dual.
125lbs: #9 Noah Surtin (9-1) vs #12 Nico Provo (10-2)
Coming off his first loss of the season, it doesn’t get any easier for Surtin against Provo. A breakout wrestler earlier this year, Provo had an argument for #1 in the country after winning CKLV. He also lost to Cooper Flynn, and recently lost to Stevo Poulin in the Scuffle finals. Provo is best from neutral, with good leg attacks and scrambling. Surtin hasn’t been able to get his leg attacks going his past two matches, and that’s seemed to hurt his offensive output. If he can get back to that I like his chances here, but he may need to find some success on top to pull this out. In a season filled with upsets at 125 I have Surtin dropping this one, but could be a big bounce back opportunity.
Prediction: Provo Dec. Surtin (MIZ 0 STAN 3)
133lbs: #31 Kade Moore (8-2) vs #21 Tyler Knox (9-5)
This match could be fireworks, as Stanford’s true freshman Tyler Knox has an exciting style. Moore is coming off a signature win, and showed a lot of impressive scrambling. Knox is tough on top and can scramble well, but has been majored three times. This is a tough match to predict between two young wrestlers who aren’t afraid to open up. I’ll take Moore keeping his hot streak going and getting the win….
