National title is sole goal for Missouri

It’s almost a given Ben Askren will win a national championship for the Missouri wrestling team this weekend. His brother, Max, will enter the tournament as a favorite to capture an individual title, as well. But, the Tigers have already experienced individual success. Ben Askren won an individual national title last year and both Askrens and Raymond Jordan won individual Big 12 championships March 3. This weekend, the Tigers are after a bigger prize: the school’s first team national championship. For that to happen, Missouri will need big performances from more than just its stars when the tournament begins at 10 a.m. today.

Missouri is one of just three teams, along with No. 1 Minnesota and No. 15 Northwestern, with two top-seeded wrestlers in the tournament. But, on paper, the No. 3 Tigers, with eight wrestlers in the tournament and three top-five seeds, don’t have the depth that frontrunners Minnesota and Iowa State have. Minnesota has nine wrestlers in the tournament while No. 2 Iowa State qualified a wrestler in all 10 weight classes. The Gophers feature five top five seeds while the Cyclones have four. Missouri coach Brian Smith, though, said he expects all his wrestlers to do well.

“I look at is as I’m bringing eight great wrestlers up there,” he said. “I really believe the group of eight young men we’re taking to nationals is the most confident group we’ve ever taken. There are a lot of people that are just happy to be there, this group is going out to win the national title.”

To achieve that goal, the Tigers will need top-10 seeds Tyler McCormick (No. 8 at 133 pounds) and Matt Pell (No. 9 at 165 pounds) to wrestle at a higher level. They will also need Josh Wagner to rebound from a disappointing end to his regular season and get points from unheralded wrestlers Michael Chandler and Mark Ellis.

“Seeds don’t really matter,” Chandler said. “I have the mind-set that I can go in and win the national title. We have to step up as a team because we know the other guys are going to get it done, so we have to get it done, too.”

All year the Tigers have talked about peaking for the national tournament, and McCormick, who suffered a disappointing 6-5 loss to Oklahoma State’s Coleman Scott in the 133-pound Big 12 Championship match, says they are ready to wrestle their best this weekend.

“I think we’re all prepared to go in and wrestle the best we ever have,” McCormick said. “I feel like our whole team is bound to do great things this week. I’m extremely amped to go into this weekend. I’ve never been this excited about the chances that I have and the chances this team has. We’ve just got to realize the moment, and step into it, and just take it.”

Chandler agreed that the excitement of the national championships will help all the Tigers improve their wrestling.

“There’s just something about the NCAA’s,” he said. “It’s your last chance to prove to yourself and to everybody how hard you’ve worked all season. When you step on the mat at NCAA’s, there’s just something different about it, and I know I’m going to wrestle better than anybody’s seen me wrestle.”

Wagner and Pell struggled at the end of the regular season. Wagner was ranked as high as No. 7 earlier in the year but lost his last two dual matches and then went 1-for-2 at the Big 12 Championships to finish fourth. He enters the tournament unseeded. Pell also finished fourth in the Big 12, going 1-for-3 in the Big 12 tournament.

But, both have beaten some of the top-ranked wrestlers in their classes, and Smith said earlier in the year that both had national championship potential.

If either can even come close to that potential, the Tigers will be right in the thick of things for a team title.

“I didn’t finish up as strongly, but I guess I’m relaxed now and I don’t know that at the end I was,” Wagner said. “I was a little nervous at Big 12’s, and now I feel like all the pressure’s off and I can just go out there and have fun, wrestle hard for seven minutes, and whatever happens, happens, I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a good thing.”

Pell, the only senior besides Ben Askren on the Tigers roster, hopes to go out with a strong performance.

“I’ve kind of ripped the rearview mirror off,” Pell said. “So, I’m not even focusing on the past at all. I have one tournament left, and I want to go out there and make it happen.”

There is a lot of pressure on Missouri’s lower-ranked wrestlers. Because the team only has eight competitors in the tournament, early losses by one or two of them could end all national championship dreams. But, the confident Tigers say they are not intimidated by the big stage.

“I think we’re the most dangerous wrestlers in the country,” McCormick said. “We’re not trying to go out there and beat you, we’re trying to go out and pin you. I think when other teams step on the mat against Missouri, they’re going to be scared. I look up and down our lineup, and you can’t go into any match thinking ‘Oh, we’re going to beat this Missouri guy’, it’s not going to happen. We’re all going to wrestle our butts off this weekend, and we’re going to come out on top, it’s just going to happen.”