Mizzou wins National Duals
By Craig Sesker IOWA CITY – And then there was one. The last of the unbeat- ens was the Missouri Tigers, who sent a loud and resounding statement by knocking off Iowa 18-12 to win the National Duals. The Tigers did it despite competing in front of a huge pro- Iowa crowd of 6,846 fans on Feb. 22 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Second-ranked Missouri finished its dual season 24-0 while handing No. 1 Iowa (17-1) a stunning setback in Iowa City. The Tigers won 6-of-10 matches against the Hawkeyes. “That was fun, it was a lot of fun,” Missouri coach Brian Smith said. “I told the kids before the match it was going to be a battle with the atmosphere and all that. But I told them to enjoy it and embrace it, and they did.” Missouri captured its first National Duals title. NCAA champion and top-ranked J’den Cox of Missouri scored a third-period takedown to rally for a 4-3 win over Iowa’s Nathan
MATSIDE CHAT, Continued from page 25
hear it. The expectations rise among the team when you do well, which is healthy.
USA Wrestler: What kind of student-athlete do you recruit to Edinboro and is there a style of wrestling that typifies Edinboro wrestling? Flynn: I like to have tough kids, the kids who are dedicated.
That’s what I look for, not so much that he’s slick or he’s a horse. It’s more their level of dedication and how much they want to pay the price. We get a lot of snow here, and you know what, a lot of people like that. There are hundreds of thousands of athletes. We don’t need to find the kid who likes sunshine, the beach and a big school. Mitchell Port wanted a small pro- gram. He’s from Pennsylvania. He’s used to Northeast climate. A lot of wrestlers want a good education at a small school. It’s like a big family here with our fans. So I walk to class in the snow. Who cares? I don’t have to fool anybody and I try not to. I tell them it snows like crazy. You have to like Edinboro. Plenty of kids want what Edinboro has.
USA Wrestler: You have had some great assistant coaches working with you, including over a decade with Lou Rosselli on staff and now with Cliff Moore on staff. Explain their role to the success of your program. Flynn: I learned a long time ago from Coach Lorenzo just having good people around you is a key element to success. My first year here was Lou’s senior year as an athlete. He had simi- lar visions about how somebody should train. I saw him blos- som. He was third at the NCAAs, very close. He became a U.S. Open champion, then an Olympian. I’ve seen him blossom as a World Team Coach and now the assistant on the national cham- pion team. You have to have people like that. There is too much to do. The great thing with Lou making the Olympic team is that now at Edinboro, kids know we can become Olympians training here. Lou was huge in the evolution of the program. He left, and I felt we were in trouble. We were fortunate to get Cliff. He’s a grinder. It’s great for you as head coach. He’s not afraid of work, not just on the mat but off the mat. You replace Lou with some- one very similar to him and don’t miss a beat. For a successful program, the staff has to be a huge part of it.
USA Wrestler: Your other NCAA champions were Gregor Gillespie in 2007 and Jarrod King in 2009. Tell us something
32 USA Wrestler
Burak at 197 pounds. Cox earned a riding-time point to gain the winning point. That put the Tigers up 18-9 to clinch the victory. “It was definitely a big win,” said Cox, who is just a sopho- more. “It was an all-around team effort. This is awesome. We came out and did what we needed to do to beat a really good Iowa team, a really stacked Iowa team. This is amazing.” The fireworks began when No. 1 Alan Waters pulled out a wild 5-4 overtime win over No. 5 Thomas Gilman of Iowa at 125. Iowa fought right back with No. 6 Cory Clark using a punish- ing attack to top Zach Synon 7-2 at 133.
Sixth-ranked Lavion Mayes of Missouri put on a double-leg
takedown clinic en route to a 13-6 win over No. 8 Josh Dziewa of Iowa at 141. Top-ranked Drake Houdashelt of Missouri rode No. 2 Brandon Sorensen of Iowa the entire second period en route to a 2-1 win at 149. Missouri also gained wins from Joseph LaVallee (157) and Willie Miklus (184).
about each of these wrestlers and why they reached the top of the podium. Flynn: Gregor was ultra-talented. Where Koscheck had toughness, he was talented and a competitor. You could kick his butt in practice, but put on a headgear and singlet and blow the whistle, Gregor would just thrash you. Something would click. He had great mat awareness. Jarrod King was the same way, talented and very smart and explosive. Jarrod was special for me. He came from Oklahoma. They released him and didn’t want him anymore. And he was hurt. We knew his family. Matt King was a two-time All-American for us. We knew what he was about and how hard he worked. Sometimes, you nurse them back to health physically and mentally, and then he blossomed. It was a special season for him.
USA Wrestler: This year, your team had four All-Americans and won its first NCAA Div. I trophy by placing third. What was the key to such an outstanding performance in St. Louis? Flynn: This team set a goal after being fifth last year. We had some points coming back. We want to get a team trophy. Everybody says they want to win the nationals, and you have to set high goals. We had never had a trophy. We wanted one of those four trophies. We had been close before. I know how hard it is. There are not a lot of programs which have been top four. It bonded them. It was a common theme. Wrestling is an individ- ual sport, but when you have that, the kids wanted each other to do well to get that team trophy. Getting the trophy was kind of therapeutic because you have four young men who were indi- vidually devastated. They all felt deep in their heart that they could win. You have four guys who are ultra-disappointed, yet this team element brings joy. It was a special year and will be hard to recreate that. All of our kids wrestled above seeds, except Mitchell who wrestled to his seed. I’m proud of the way they competed.
USA Wrestler: Ohio State won its first NCAA team title this
year. Can a school like Edinboro win a team title, and what would it take to join that very select group? Flynn: The answer is yes. We were third, and we had a kid get hurt, a top-six kid. What if Austin Matthews doesn’t get hurt and he has a year like Vic Avery and gets in the finals? Kory Mines, he beat the kid who reached the finals twice this year. Does everything have to go right? Absolutely. Do I have to hit on every recruit? Absolutely. Can it be done? No doubt in my mind.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44