Familiar Territory

Tiger Wrestling Lands In Top 10

Columbia, Mo. – The Missouri wrestling team received a No. 8 ranking as announced today by InterMat.  Defending National Champion Iowa was awarded the No. 1 spot, while Big 12 opponent Iowa State stands at No. 2 in the country.  Five Tigers sit among the top 20 of their respective weight class, with three ranked among the top-10.

Senior heavyweight Mark Ellis (Peculiar, Mo.) has been named the No. 1 wrestler at heavyweight in three polls this preseason.  The defending National Champion is 68-26 in his career and has recorded 22 wins by fall.  Ellis is one of five returning heavyweight All-Americans; a list that includes 2009 runner-up and current No. 2 Konrad Dudziak of Duke, two-time All-Americans Jared Rosholt of Oklahoma State (No. 3) and David Zabriskie of Iowa State (No. 5) and 2009 fourth place finisher Dan Erekson of Iowa (No. 4).  Four Big 12 heavyweight grapplers are ranked among the top-10 in the nation, Ellis, Rosholt, Zabriskie and Tucker Lane of Nebraska (No. 9).  Oklahoma heavyweight Nathan Fernandez sits at No. 15.

Two-time All-American Maxwell Askren (Hartland, Wis.) received his highest ranking of the preseason at No. 2 at 184 pounds.  Down one weight class from 197 pounds, Askren stands behind 2009 NCAA second-place finisher Mike Pucillo of Ohio State.  Askren is the only Big 12 wrestler ranked among the top 10 at 184 pounds.  Oklahoma State's Clayton Foster, a junior, sits just outside the top 10 at No. 11. 

Missouri's 165-pound starter, senior Nicholas Marable (Collierville, Tenn.), rounds out Missouri's list of top-10 ranked grapplers and opens his season at No. 7.  Marable owns a 6-2 all-time record against the six wrestlers ranked higher than him.  The Tiger grappler has never paired with Minnesota's No. 1 ranked Dustin Schlatter or Wisconsin's third-ranked Andrew Howe.  In three seasons, Marable has managed one win over No. 2 Jarrod King of Edinboro, four against fifth-ranked Jon Reader of Iowa State and one over Bucknell's sixth-ranked Andy Rendos.  Marable's only losses came to fourth-ranked Ryan Morningstar of Iowa and Rendos, both last season. 

2009 NCAA qualifier and expected 133 pound starter Todd Schavrien (Poway, Calif.) will kick off the 2009-10 campaign ranked 19^th in the nation.  One of only three Big 12 wrestlers ranked among the top-20 at 133 pounds, Schavrien stands behind Iowa State's fifth-ranked Nick Fanthorpe and Oklahoma State's seventh-ranked Jordan Oliver. 

The youngest Missouri wrestler to earn a top-20 ranking this preseason is sophomore Dorian Henderson (Columbus, Ga.).  Henderson stands at No. 20 in the 174-pound weight class.  Last season, Henderson wrestled at 184 pounds and qualified for his first NCAA Championship. 

All five of the Big 12 wrestling programs are ranked among the top 20 in the nation, with four, Iowa State (No. 2), Oklahoma State (No. 6), Nebraska (No. 7) and Missouri (No. 8) among the top 10.  Oklahoma enters the season ranked 18^th.