2023-11-03 06:14:13
Missouri’s work for this season began on the ride home from Tulsa this past March following the Tigers registered their fourth top-five finish at the NCAA Championships under Brian Smith.
On the drive back to Columbia, Smith and the Tigers reflected on positions and tactics that might’ve been difference makers — things that would’ve led to more individual victories, team points and ultimately may have led to another team trophy in the Mizzou case.
“We came up with regarding 18 or 19 techniques that (if) we might have (improved, we) would have won (matches) and done a better job as a team,” Smith said. “Individually, we met with each wrestler and went through things that they’re doing well and things they need to improve at.”
It’s not hard to understand why Smith and the Tigers were digging into the details following the national tournament. Missouri went 8-8 at the NCAA Championships in matches determined by two points or fewer.
“It’s just all specific things — how to finish a backdoor, getting better, more efficient, and finishing our backdoor finishes off a single or a crack-back position,” Smith said. “Getting better at escaping from a quad pod. We got there a lot, but we were getting broken back down. Getting pushed out of bounds from the bottom. We’d get up to our feet and guys would level-change and run up, push us out of bounds. So we started working (at) just getting them better at it. We really focused on a lot of positions and sparring drills that we might do for the bottom position.”
‘These Guys Want To Wrestle Good Teams’
Brian Smith enters his 25th season at Mizzou in search of his 13th straight conference title (three in the Big 12 and nine in the MAC). Five Tigers are back following earning All-America honors last season — Brock Mauller (seventh at 149) Keegan O’Toole (champion at 165), Peyton Mocco (eighth at 174), Rocky Elam (third at 197) and Zach Elam (sixth at 285).
The Tigers might field a lineup with 38 years of starting experience. They’ll get tested by a schedule that includes eight duals once morest opponents that finished inside the top 20 last season at the NCAA Championships and eight trips outside the state of Missouri. Mizzou opens the season on Nov. 11 in Kansas City at the Tiger Style Invite, which will be streamed live on Flowrestling.
“I know these guys want to wrestle good teams and want to wrestle the best,” Smith said. “I made it a physical and highly ranked schedule because of the maturity in our program right now.”
Lineup Look
College wrestling is a revolving roster door each season with graduates moving on, veterans coming back and newcomers moving in. Mizzou’s lineup experienced a little bit of it all during the offseason.
Along with the five returning All-Americans, the Tigers have Noah Surtin (125) and Colton Hawks (184) back following NCAA tournament appearances, leaving three spots to fill.
At 133, Zeke Seltzer appears to be the favorite in a group that also includes Trey Crawford, Kade Moore, Korbin Shepard and Eric Lovelace.
Josh Edmond, an NCAA qualifier in 2022, is back following a redshirt season and leads the pack at 141. Smith said the sophomore from Detroit is “feeling good and looking great. He’s really developed his offense and his aggressiveness. He’s just getting better and better.”
The Tigers are eying a change in the middle of their order. At the start of the offseason, it appeared as if Cam Steed would take the reins at 157. That was before Mauller moved up from 149, adding intrigue to the weight battle.
“(Mauller has) gotten bigger,” Smith said. “He is certified at ‘49, but he wanted to see how it’s gonna feel at ‘57 at the beginning of the year, so we’ll see. If he’s doing well up there, he’ll stay up there and we have (Logan) Gioffre doing a really good job at ‘49 and he’s been the one that’s kind of stood out all the whole fall. I’d like to see Cam Steed get in, but he’ll get a lot of matches this year. Right now that’s the way it is, but it can change.”
Inside The Rankings
Mizzou opens the season with six wrestlers ranked inside the top 10 at their respective weights and the Tigers have a wrestler ranked in the top 30 at all 10 weights.
They have the potential to match up in duals with 103 wrestlers who are currently ranked, including 32 who are inside the top 10 in their respective weight classes.
Upgrades
Mizzou’s continuous success has set the Tigers up for facility upgrades and they’ll roll out a new mat this season for home duals. Smith recently shared a picture of the new octagon-shaped mat on social media.
“I just felt like we needed that,” he said. “The atmosphere has grown and gotten so much better, but the people on the edges are so far away, so now they’re all gonna surround it from five, six, or seven feet away. It’s going to be fun and exciting.”
The Tigers also revealed new singlets for the coming season. Taking a new approach to wrestling style, Mizzou introduced newly designed two-piece singlets to go along with the traditional one-piece. Coach Smith plans to break out each combination during home meets this season.
Kansas City Here We Come
The season concludes right where it begins for Mizzou — in Kansas City. It’s familiar territory for the Tigers, even though Smith said he doesn’t look at it as a home-math advantage.
“(But) I do love driving two hours down the road and how youth wrestlers and high school wrestlers can attend the event and It’s just a great experience for them and our guys,” he said.
Black And Gold Meet Takeaways
Smith said he was “pleased” with what he saw last week when Mizzou staged 14 matches during its Black and Gold Intrasquad meet.
“I thought there were a lot of points being scored in the majority of the matches — not all of them — but I did see some really good things on top and some good things with our attacks and even our hand -fighting skills have improved,” he said. “That was one thing that was on the list in the spring, so just the aggressiveness of the team I was pleased with.”
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