Wrestling comes up short

Two team members won individual championship titles.

By Sam Wilson
March 11, 2008

MU junior Michael Chandler tries to escape the grasp of Iowa State sophomore Cyler Sanderson during the final match of the 157-pound weight class on Saturday in Oklahoma State University’s Gallagher-Iba Arena. MU will send seven wrestlers to the 2008 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships in St. Louis March 20-22.

STILLWATER, Okla. — The MU wrestling team wanted to be the fourth on Saturday. Since the conference was formed, only Oklahoma State, Oklahoma and Iowa State have won the Big 12 Wrestling Championship.

Unfortunately for MU, Iowa State won Saturday’s meet and the Tigers were in a fourth position they didn’t want: fourth place in the meet, not the fourth team ever to win the competition.

The team had two members win the Big 12 in their respective weight classes and qualify for the national championship.

Sophomore Nicholas Marable won the title at 165 pounds. Marable started his day with a semifinal win against Iowa State senior Jon Reader. His finals match was against Nebraska sophomore Stephen Dwyer.

Marable and Dwyer were tied at two after the second period, but Marable scored an escape in the third to win the match 3-2 at Oklahoma State’s Gallagher-Iba Arena.

By the time the conference championship rolls around, most, if not all, of a wrestler’s opponents are familiar. Marable said one of his strengths is adapting to opponents’ styles.

“I can kind of figure out and get a feel for how people wrestle,” Marable said. “And I guess it’s more frustrating for them because if I was a coach, I wouldn’t know how to coach against myself.”

The other Missouri wrestler to win an individual championship was sophomore 197-pounder Max Askren.

Askren won a semifinal match against Iowa State’s David Bertolino to set up a finals match with Nebraska’s Craig Brester. Askren jumped into a 5-0 lead to start the match. But with the lead and an advantage in riding time, Askren made the decision not to wrestle conservatively.

“There’s no point in winning 5-0 and not trying to do anything else,” Askren said. “People paid, I’m trying to give them their money.;

Brester was able to score three points to cut his deficit to 5-3. But Askren scored a reversal and maintained a one-minute advantage in riding time to win the match 8-3.

Two other MU wrestlers, senior 133-pounder Tyler McCormick and junior 157-pounder Michael Chandler finished second in their weight classes to qualify for the national competition.

Coach Brian Smith said the day could have gone better for MU, especially the end of Chandler’s final match against Iowa State’s Cyler Sanderson.

“Michael really was in control of the match in the first minute of the third period,” Smith said. “He had the kid tired, but just stopped wrestling. You can’t do that, Sanderson’s tough.”

Sophomore Mark Ellis qualified for nationals (held March 20-22 in St. Louis) in the heavyweight division by finishing third in the Big 12.

Senior 149-pounder Josh Wagner and junior 184-pounder Raymond Jordan finished fourth in the Big 12 but were given wild card bids for nationals at a coaches’ meeting after the Big 12 meet.

“I wish we would have qualified ten,” McCormick said. “That’s the goal going into every tournament. I’m sure some guys are upset at how they wrestled today, but they’ve got to shrug that off and come back and wrestle hard at nationals.”

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Wrestling comes up short

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