James Hackney
The Tigers had another dominating Big 12 win, taking nine matches against Air Force. Within that score includes seven bonus point wins. #2 Wyatt Hendrickson did not compete against Mizzou, instead winning the Reno Tournament of Champions in Nevada. The only match Mizzou dropped was a big one, as Clayton Whiting was upset against Sam Wolf in a top eight matchup. Short week for the Tigers as they’ll have a dual against Illinois in the Stifel Theater in St. Louis on Thursday. Here are my major takeaways from the dual.
- Despite bonus points, felt like there were points left on the board.
Noah Surtin, Kade Moore, Brock Mauller, Peyton Mocco, and Zach Elam all had dominating performances that didn’t leave much to talk about. At 141, 149, and 184 however, it felt like there were points left on the board. Josh Edmond had big sequences early, and gave up a takedown going for a throw. He seemed to find his offense more comfortably after that, but wasn’t able to score late to go for the major. Gioffre scored a major, but had some pauses in action that felt like he could have scored. Fernau is solid and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in the rankings this season, but Gioffre was likely a sequence or two away from separating even further.
It’s always easy to say a guy could have scored more in a loss, but Whiting had opportunities. He got to legs multiple times, but wasn’t able to finish. Normally a high motor that breaks opponents, he looked to be breathing heavy early in the match. It was a big match for the redshirt freshman, and not one to worry about right now. Coach Smith after the dual discussed the need to improve finishing after getting to a leg, so Whiting has half of it figured out in his young career against top competition.
It’s rare, but O’Toole gave up multiple takedowns against his opponent. While up 16-4, O’Toole was clearly looking for the tech. However, Petrucelli was not going to go down easy and actually scored two takedowns on O’Toole. Never worried about O’Toole, but I’m sure he’s not happy with how the end sequences went….
