Grappling (with success)
Tiger wrestlers take second in Big 12 and head to nationals
Tiger senior Ben Askren, Mizzou's first national champion, watches the action during his last Big 12 tournament. Above, younger brother Max Askren takes on Iowa State's Kurt Backes on the way to his own Big 12 title. Photos by James Yates.
Things seen at the Big 12 Wrestling Championships at the Hearnes Center in Columbia on March 3:
- Fans getting pumped up in the snowy parking lot with a pre-match “MIZ-ZOU” cheer.
- Ben Askren — Mizzou’s first national champion in 2006 — bouncing around in a tie-dyed T-shirt bearing his bushy haired likeness and the word “Funky.”
- Tiger fans and wrestlers alike believing, with good reason, that they are true contenders.
- Askren, his younger brother Max and teammate Raymond Jordan all capturing Big 12 conference titles on the way to a second-place team finish, tied for Mizzou’s highest Big 12 finish ever.
The Big 12 conference tournament capped a season in which an ever-improving Tiger squad ended up ranked third in the country (and as high as first earlier in the season) and continued to gain national respect as a team in the wake of Askren’s individual success. “It’s been this way for the past few years,” Coach Brian Smith says. “We just keep taking bigger and bigger steps.”
Staying tough among the toughest
The team had a Big 12 conference title in its sights this year. In no wrestler was that more evident than in Ben Askren, who noted with a tinge of disappointment that if a couple of calls had gone the Tigers’ way, he’d be celebrating a team title in his final year as a college wrestler.
The team finished second to Iowa State (ranked second nationally). In a close tournament that came down to the last couple of matches of the night, Mizzou finished just five team points behind Iowa State and a mere half a point ahead of perennial powerhouse Oklahoma State.
The focus has been on Askren for a while now — that tends to happen when you go undefeated for two straight seasons — but he’s clearly not just focused on himself. He watches and cheers intently as his teammates compete, sometimes even drawing a warning from the referee for getting too close to the mat. After capturing his Big 12 title this year, he interrupted reporters so he could go support Jordan in his match, saying, “Let’s go out there and watch Raymond.”
In addition to Ben Askren’s (174 lbs.) dominant title victory and Max Askren (197 lbs.) and Jordan’s (184 lbs.) close title wins, Tyler McCormick (133 lbs.) placed second, losing by one point in what Coach Smith could only call a “heartbreaker.” Michael Chandler (157 lbs.) and Mark Ellis (heavyweight) both finished third, and Matt Pell (165 lbs.) and Josh Wagner (149 lbs.) both finished fourth.
Nationals are next
“This is the Big 12,” Smith says of what is arguably the best conference in college wrestling. “This conference toughens you up for nationals.”
Jordan, who proved himself to be the best in the best conference, echoes that sentiment: “This definitely gets my momentum and my confidence up going into nationals.”
The Tigers are sending a record-high eight wrestlers to the NCAA Championships for 2007: both Askren brothers, Chandler, Ellis, Jordan, McCormick, Pell and Wagner. The tournament takes place March 15–17 at the Palace at Auburn Hills, Mich.
As they did during the conference tournament, Tiger wrestlers are seeing themselves as true contenders on the national scene. “I want to bring this team with me to the top,” Ben Askren says, “and we have a good chance to do it.”
Mizzou wrestler Raymond Jordan controls Oklahoma's Josh Hinton in a Big 12 semifinal match. Jordan won a conference title at 184 lbs.