고정 헤더 영역
상세 컨텐츠
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COLUMBIA, Mo. The Missouri wrestling team's ambitions transcend winning another Mid-American Conference championship, but before the No.
1-ranked Tigers can dream about hoisting a national championship trophy in St. Louis, they have business to address on their home mats. Through Saturday's first two rounds of the MAC championships at Hearnes Center, Mizzou put itself in position to win the tournament for a third straight season and claim a fourth overall consecutive conference title. The Tigers won 18 of 20 matches, advanced eight of 10 wrestlers to Sunday's championship round and clinched seven wrestlers for the NCAA championships, set for Scottrade Center March 19-21.
Eight Missouri Wrestlers Go For Mac 2017
Eight Missouri Wrestlers Go For Machine
Through the first day of competition, the Tigers dominated the team standings, sitting in first place with 122 points, ahead of second-place Old Dominion with 76.5 But Missouri coach Brian Smith wasn't satisfied with all of Saturday's results. 'I wanted 10 guys in the finals, so I'm not extremely happy,' Smith said. 'I wanted to get them all. Because now we've got to battle for a couple spots.'
Missouri can add another NCAA automatic qualifier if Zach Synon can beat Central Michigan's Tyler Keselring in Sunday's 133-pound title match. The MAC's 133-pound class received only one automatic NCAA qualifier. After losing Missouri's only matches Saturday, Lavion Mayes (141) and Mikey England (165) will have to win some matches Sunday to clinch spots in St. Louis, though Mayes is likely to earn an at- large berth in the NCAA field if he doesn't finish third Sunday. Eight Mizzou wrestlers swept their two matches: Alan Waters (125), who improved to 29-0 for the season, Synon, Drake Houdashelt (149), Joseph Lavallee (157), Johnny Eblen (174), Willie Miklus (184), J'Den Cox (197) and heavyweight Devin Mellon. 'We'd like to have 10, but shoot, eight's a pretty good number,' Waters said.
'Hopefully we can go out tomorrow and get eight champions.' Smith said, 'The thing I like is we're consistent.
We're the team taking the shots.
