Mizzou and Oregon State Duals

[Big Bird]

Season kicks off 10am on Sunday at the SHAC. NDSU, Oregon State, Missouri, and SDSU will be in town to wrestle. NDSU and SDSU won't wrestle each other yet, but Mizzou and Oregon State should present some stiff challenges.

These duals present an opportunity for several guys to get quality wins against non-conference opponents. With the condensed season, the B1G not allowing any non-conference competition, non-conference matchups will hold even more weight in determining NCAA conference allocations. Hopefully the guys are dialed in and get some wins over quality competition, and get the B12 some more allocations for the NCAA tournament.

Oregon State Preview:
125- #28 Brandon Kaylor vs McGwire Midkiff. Kaylor will provide a good opportunity for Mac to get a ranked win.
133- #7 Devan Turner vs Ryan Ripplinger or Kellyn March. It'll be interesting to see how 133 shakes out for NDSU. We barely saw Ripplinger in his redshirt year and D1 is a huge step up for March from SD HS wrestling. If Degen can get down to 133, that'd be interesting. Even though Turner is in the top 10, I really don't think he's an impossible task to beat.
141- #18 Grant Willits vs #20 Dylan Droegemueller. Good early season test for Dylan and Willits did beat Dyaln last year.
149- #30 Lane Stigall vs Jaden Van Maanen. I expect JVM to win this one and it would be huge for the B12 earning another AQ spot and for his confidence after a shaky year last season.
157- #20 Hunter Willits vs #14 Jared Franek. I expect a comfortable win Franek, but a top 20 opponent is nothing to scoff at.
165- Dillon Ulrey vs Austin Brenner. I expect big things from Brenner this year and a win here.
174- Colton Beisley vs Riley Habisch/Noah Cressell. I was excited to see Weber's growth into the weight with an entire offseason, but it looks like he won't be in the lineup on Sunday. If Cressell can hold the weight, he should win. We basically didn't get to see Habisch last year, so I'm excited to see him on the mat.
184- #33 Ryan Reyes vs TJ Pottinger. Reyes is beatable, but until I see Pottinger with improved attacks and finishing, I'd pick Reyes.
197- #29 JJ Dixon vs Michael Nelson/Cole Witzig. While I like Witzig, I really want to see Nelson here. I think he has a huge ceiling and would win here, which would be big towards getting an NCAA tournament spot.
HWT- Brian Barnes vs #16 Brandon Metz. Metz should win here.

Wrestlestat has it 19-13 NDSU with Nelson and Cressell starting at 197 and 174. It should be a really good, competitive dual, with Oregon State favored (by the rankings) at125-149 and 184-197, which is 6 wins. 125, 141, 149, and 197 are the matches I'm most looking forward to in this dual.

[Big Bird]

WrestleStat has Mizzou beating NDSU 27-7. Mizzou had their open wrestleoffs on Rokfin and I was impressed by their young guys. Some of them knock off established top 20 guys and should get a crack in the lineup today. 157 saw star freshman (top 5 overall recruitin the 2020 class) Keegen O'Toole knocked off veteran and top 10-15 Jarret Jacques. I expect Mizzou's lineup to change in each dual today, so I'm not going to try to predict the matchup, but I think NDSU has a shot at: 125, 141, 157, 165, 197, and HWT. Granted, NDSU is a decent underdog in some of those (like 165), but barring some really weird lineups, those are the 6 matches that would have to break right for NDSU to have a shot today.

Fun fact: The last time Mizzou came to Fargo, world champion (and: 4xAA/3xNCAA Champ/Olympic Bronze/Soon to be Olympic Gold) J'Den Cox had his redshirt pulled and made his NCAA debut as a true freshman. He dominated on his way to a major decision that day and ee would go on to win an NCAA title as a true freshman at 197.

[Big Bird]

No Midkiff today, we'll see the true freshman Henningson at 125.

Luke Weber is dressed after not being listed in the previews.

[Big Bird]

Henningson loses 9-6. That's a match Midkiff very likely wins, as Kaylor gassed hard and Henningson didn't have any good shots.

Another true freshman for NDSu, as Kellyn March starts vs Turner

[Big Bird]

True Freshman March leads #7 Turner 3-2 after 1 and looks confident and capable

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10-2 after 2 periods over the #7 ranked guy in the country

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14-5 major dec for the true freshman. NDSU up 4-3

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Droegemueller loses a dec, but Van Maanen beats #30 Stigall.

7-6 NDSU

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Franek wins at the buzzer in double ot.

Probably the flattest performance I've seen from him. Other kid had 4 points waved off in that match and Franek had no good shots.

NDSU leads 10-6

[Big Bird]

Weber wrestling 165 and looks like Cressell will be in at 174