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Sooners lose to Mizzou Tigers 18-15 in mat action

Old conference foe Missouri visited McCasland Field House for a dual meet with the Oklahoma Sooners. Missouri, ranked #14 in Intermat's poll (and Missouri is now in the MAC in wrestling) was the underdog to OU's #4 ranked Sooners.

The match started off at 125 pounds and OU true freshman Sean Williams gave a pretty good account of himself. The match was tied 1-1 in the third period after the wrestlers traded escapes, but Williams got a little too aggressive and was taken down by Barlow McGhee, giving the Tigers a 3-0 lead in the match.

At 133 pounds Cody Brewer utterly dismantled Matt Manley, 18-3. Manley is a pretty good wrestler by the way, ranked #20 by Intermat, but the #8 Brewer had his way with him. Brewer has improved tremendously this year and I think could be a candidate for a top 4 finish at NCAAs. The dual score was now OU 5 Missouri 3.

At 141 pounds Nick Lester disappointed again while dropping a 6-4 decision to unranked Lavion Mayes. Lester is a lot like the Landry Jones of the mat (except not as good as Landry was)...you never know which Nick Lester will show up. Lester has never really improved at OU and is about as the same level he was when he was a Freshman. On the other hand he was about this same level when he was an All American 2 years ago.

At 149 pounds #2 Kendrick Maple dropped a 3-2 decision to #1 ranked Drake Houdashelt. This was a very disappointing match for me. Maple is a great wrestler and seemingly withdraws into a shell against his better opponents. He needs to be aggressive and trust his offense more, even against the better guys like Houdashelt. Hats off to Houdashelt for a nice win, but Maple isn't wrestling like he needs to. That's 3 losses this year already (not counting the All Star match which he also lost) after going undefeated in a pretty dominant Junior season last year.

157 pounds - #18 Justin DeAngelis scraped out a 5-3 win over Joe Lavallee. A pretty good match. DeAngelis had to come back from a deficit to win. That being said I'm beginning to think Justin won't do much at nationals. He's scrappy, but he'll need a lot of luck to qualify for nationals and do something if he gets there.

165 pounds - Freshman Clark Glass ralled to beat Jordan Gagliano 6-2. A pretty good win by Glass, Gagliano is no slouch and has a 24-11 record so far this year. Keep improving Clark!

174 pounds - #18 Mikey England defeated Derek Geiges from OU 6-1. Geiges is a redshirt junior for OU and graduating after this season (he won't be back to wrestle as a Senior). Geiges, a true 157 pounder, gamely stepped in to represent OU at this weight so Andrew Howe could move up to 184 for the dual. Geiges wrestled a pretty good match against a much bigger and stronger opponent, holding him to a simple decision.

184 pounds - Hercules Andrew Howe was a complete beast destroying Cody Johnston 22-9 in their match. Howe was super aggressive in the match against his larger opponent.

197 pounds - #3 Travis Rutt was completely outclassed by #5 J'Den Cox 6-1 in their match. The outcome was never in doubt and Cox dominated throughout. A highly impressive win by the Tiger true Freshman. I'll say it right now, assuming he manages to wrestle 4 years with no legal or academic issues Cox will be at least a 2 time NCAA champ by the time he graduates. He's that good. Rutt is no slacker, a 2 time All American...and Cox utterly dominated him.

HWT - Coming into the final match the score was knotted at 15-15. The heavyweights are always put into situations like this it seems. OU heavy Ross Larson was frustrated by Mizzou's much more experienced (and 2 time NCAA qualifier in his own right) Devin Mellon, 6-0. Larson couldn't get anything going at all in the match.

Missouri came away with a hard fought 18-15 win. Good for them, I've always like the Tigers wrestling program, and Coach Smith is a great coach. OU on the other hand looked listless and tired for the most part. Hopefully Patterson will return at 125 soon and the Sooners will be a bit more energetic in their next match.

Match Summary MISS OKLA
125 Barlow McGhee (Missouri) won by decision over Sean Williams (Oklahoma) 3-1. 3.00 0
133 Cody Brewer (Oklahoma) won by tech fall over Matt Manley (Missouri) 0:00 18-3. 0 5.00
141 Lavion Mayes (Missouri) won by decision over Nick Lester (Oklahoma) 6-4. 3.00 0
149 Drake Houdashelt (Missouri) won by decision over Kendric Maple (Oklahoma) 3-2. 3.00 0
157 Justin DeAngelis (Oklahoma) won by decision over Joseph LaVallee (Missouri) 5-3. 0 3.00
165 Clark Glass (Oklahoma) won by decision over Jordan Gagliano (Missouri) 6-2. 0 3.00
174 Mike England (Missouri) won by decision over Derek Geiges (Oklahoma) 6-1. 3.00 0
184 Andrew Howe (Oklahoma) won by major decision over Cody Johnston (Missouri) 22-9. 0 4.00
197 J`Den Cox (Missouri) won by decision over Travis Rutt (Oklahoma) 6-1. 3.00 0
285 Devin Mellon (Missouri) won by decision over Ross Larson (Oklahoma) 6-0. 3.00 0
Dual Meet Score 18.0 15.0

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