Wrestling, Big 12 conference meet this weekend

Tiger wrestling secures Big XII championship

LINK

Gabe on PM this mourning.

"We're breaking tradition and starting with wrestling because, well, Mizzou doesn't exactly make a habit of winning conference championships. At least not outside of wrestling. The Tigers did that yesterday, staking claim to the Big XII title with 131.5 points. Oklahoma finished second and Iowa State third. The Tigers had just one individual champion, Keegan O'Toole at 165 pounds, but had a wrestler in the top seven in every weight class and every individual that competed won at least as many matches as he lost. Brian Smith was named the Big XII coach of the year. It is the Tigers' 11th straight conference championship, but the last nine had come in the MAC. Mizzou won the Big XII title in 2012, then was exiled for nine years, and returned this season. Softball (2 regular season, 2 tournament), women's soccer (1 regular season, 1 tournament) and men's basketball (2 tournament) are the only other Mizzou sports with Big 12 championships. Volleyball won the SEC title in 2013 and 2015 so there has been a non-wrestling champion in the interim, but there's no question which program has been Missouri's most successful in the last couple of decades."

Tackle is right. I had some conversations when Coach was first hired. His first year, Mizzou was getting whomped by the Mason City Auctioneers and the Hickman junior varsity.

I noticed they were nearly all freshmen and asked him where were the upperclassmen. He replied, "I guess they just didn't want to wrestle." (he got rid of most of them).

He's built a great program. I always enjoyed attending some meets at Hearnes and, like Tackle, would encourage you all to go to a meet. It's cheap, entertaining, and you'll see top-ranked athletes in action.

NCAAs will be real interesting this year. Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State (and others) will be tough, but Mizzou should make a hard charge.

Congrats to a team that achieves goals. A good athletic department might look at how its best program has achieved success (with less resources,) and replicate it across the other programs.