No. 7 Cyclone Grapplers to Face No. 11/12 Missouri

02.14.2008 | Men's Wrestling

By: cyclones.com

AMES, Iowa -- No. 7 Iowa State returns to Hilton Coliseum to face No. 11/12 Missouri in Big 12 wrestling action Sunday at 2 p.m. The dual will not be televised. Clone Zone members can access the dual on cyclones.com and live stats will be available on cyclones.com.

Cyclone Notebook
-No. 7 Iowa State (14-4/1-1) meets Big 12 opponent No. 11/12 Missouri (9-3-1/1-1-1) at 2 p.m. Sunday in Hilton Coliseum.
- ISU picked up a pair of wins over Pac-10 opponents Oregon State (40-0) and Arizona State (32-3) last weekend. All together, Iowa State recorded 67 takedowns, while only surrendering two.
-The nation's most sought after grapplers in 2005, ISU's starting sophomores have combined for a 130-30 record. Among those 130 wins, 30 have come via major decision, nine technical falls and 17 pins.
-Nick Fanthorpe (133) leads the team with 60 takedowns in dual action. Three wrestlers follow with 40 or more, Mitch Mueller (149) has 46 and Cyler Sanderson and David Zabriskie each have 44 at 157 pounds and heavyweight, respectively.
-Mueller is one of ISU's hottest wrestlers as the sophomore is riding a five-match winning streak. The sophomore has won his last two bouts via major decision, outscoring opponents 33-12. All of his opponents points have come on escapes. Mueller holds a 2-0 mark in league action.
-Senior 197-pounder David Bertolino's technical fall against ASU's Thor Moen propelled the Cyclone to rank among the nation's top-10 in technical falls with five. There are two other Big 12 grapplers that have five technical falls this season.
-With two wins on the weekend, Bertolino has reached 62 career victories and leads the ISU senior class in wins.
-Upon the release of Intermat's most recent rankings, true freshman Tyler Clark has obtained his highest 125 pound ranking at 15th.

Iowa State vs. Missouri Series
-The Cyclones have dominated Missouri since the initial meeting in 1927, owning the series 42-4.
-Three of the Tigers' four victories over ISU have come in the last five years. Missouri won two duals against the Cyclones during the 2005-06 campaign, meeting first at the NWCA/Cliff Keen National Duals (21-18) and again in Ames (16-15). Prior to 2003, Missouri's only win came on Jan. 28, 1928 in Ames, 12-11.
-Last year's contest in Columbia featured the nation's second- and third-ranked squads, with No. 2 Iowa State coming out on top 27-12 thanks to Kurt Backes' critical 3:11 defensive pin of Max Askren at 197 pounds.
-The last trip to Ames on Feb. 12, 2006, resulted in a Tiger win, 16-15.
-ISU's largest margin of victory over Missouri on its home mat came in 1986 when the Cyclones annihilated the Tigers, 54-0.
-A tightly contested match can be anticipated at 184 pounds between the nation's top-ranked 184-pounder, Jake Varner, and Missouri's Raymond Jordan. These two grapplers met twice on the mat during the 2006-07 season with Jordan claiming two wins over the Cyclone. Jordan handed Varner a 4-3 decision en route to the Big 12 184-pound title.

Scouting the Tigers
-The No. 12 Missouri wrestling team is coming off a 28-13 win over Oregon State as the Tigers honored its six seniors, three of which are slated to wrestle against Iowa State.
-Heading into its final Big 12 dual of the 2007-08 season, Missouri has posted a 1-1-1 league mark. Most recently the Tigers denied Oklahoma, 23-10, and suffered a 22-13 loss in Lincoln to Nebraska. Missouri opened conference action by drawing 16-16 against Oklahoma State in Columbia, Mo.
-The only All-American in the Tiger line-up, 133-pounder Tyler McCormick, returned to his starting role in the Nebraska dual after being sidelined with an injury. McCormick halted a five-match losing streak by upsetting Oklahoma's then-ranked No. 13 Brian Shelton, 6-0.
-Michael Chandler and Raymond Jordan lead the Missouri squad in wins with 21 a piece at 157 and 184 pounds, respectively. Emerging from of his older brother's legacy, two-time NCAA Champion, Ben Aksren, is sophomore Max Askren at 197 pounds. Askren has a 19-2 record. Both Askren and Chandler have yet to be beaten in Big 12 action.
-Missouri's trio of big men, Jordan, Askren and heavyweight Mark Ellis have teamed together five times for back-to-back-to-back victories.
-The nation's second-ranked wrestler at 165 pounds, sophomore Nick Marable has not dropped a match since being handed a 3-2 decision by then-ranked No. 2 Mark Perry of Iowa. Marable did not see action in the Oregon State dual.
-On the road, the Tigers have posted a 5-3 mark, dropping matches in the NWCA/Cliff Keen National Duals, to Iowa (27-9) and Northwestern (22-19), before traveling to Nebraska for its third road loss.