Less than an hour away from NCAA's
The NCAA Wrestling Tournament is less than an hour away here at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis. Iowa comes into the tournament as the heavy favorite, but could be surprised by four or five teams, one being Missouri, who are lurking behind.
133 lb. sophomore Todd Schavrien will have a very tough opening match in No. 1 seed Franklin Gomez of Michigan State. The other first round matches are as follows for MU wrestlers. No. 5 Marcus Hoehn vs. Richard Rappo (Penn) No. 6 Michael Chandler vs. Kurt Kinser (Indiana) No. 5 Nicholas Marable vs. Nick Amauchastegui (Stanford) No. 5 Raymond Jordan vs. Shane Riccio (Bucknell) Dorian Henderson vs. Vincenzeo DiDona (Central Michigan) No. 6 Maxwell Askren vs. #7 Brandon Halsey (Cal State Bakersfield) No. 2 Mark Ellis vs. Zach Sheaffer (Pittsburgh)
Jordan defeated Riccio in their earlier bout this season with a one-sided win, and Ellis defeated Sheaffer in the championship of the Midlands Tournament on December 30.
After the graduation of two-time national champion Mark Perry of Iowa at 165 lbs., that weight class is wide open. Marable could win the title, but he could also lose his first two and be eliminated immediately. In Marable's 94 career matches at Missouri, 44 of them have been determined by two or fewer points. In those matches, Marable holds a 32-12 record in those bouts.
There will be plenty of exciting matches throughout the tournament as we get under way. The semi-finals will be broadcast live on national TV on ESPN 2 on Friday night, with the finals airing live on ESPN on Saturday night. The Maneater will be blogging with live analysis throughout the tournament as well.