No. 2 Mizzou Wrestling Storms Back to Defeat No. 11 Virginia Tech in 22-17 Thriller
Through its first five meets, Missouri has taken the college wrestling world by storm, as its defeated every school by a wide margin. However, the No. 2 Tigers faced their highest-ranked opponent to date in No. 11 Virginia Tech on Monday night.
The Hokies were well aware of the tale of the tape coming into the Hearnes Center and clearly used it as motivation, but the Tigers still came out with a 22-17 victory. Nevertheless, this result stemmed from a thrilling comeback effort by Missouri.
Virginia Tech immediately set the tone in the 125 bout, as Cooper Flynn (11) took a sudden-victory over Noah Surtin (9), which ended his undefeated start to the season.
Up 3-0, the Hokies had the current momentum and prior expectations to win the 133, as No. 5 Sam Latona went head-to-head with Mizzou's Kade Moore. It was now Moore's turn to play the underdog role and pull off the upset...and that he did, as he pinned Latona to give the Tigers a 6-3 lead and send the crowd into a frenzy.
The upsets theme continued to pour into the 141, as Virginia Tech's Tom Crook defeated No. 18 Josh Edmond in a close 9-8 decision to tie the meet at six apiece. Nevertheless, No. 20 Logan Gioffre's upset attempt was well done, but he dropped a 6-4 decision to No. 2 Caleb Henson in the 149 to give the Hokies a 9-6 lead.
In perhaps the most anticipated bout of the night (149), No. 9 Brock Mauller was on the wrong end of a 13-10 decision against No. 7 Bryce Andonian after a last-second takedown, which put Mizzou down 12-6 heading into the intermission.
Sensing that a comeback was needed if the Tigers wanted to remain perfect, No. 1 Keegan O’Toole dominated No. 27 Connor Brady with a 20-4 tech fall to close the deficit to 12-11. But Virginia Tech's No. 2 Mekhi Lewis couldn't have responded any better in the 174 bout, as he defeated James Conway 15-0 at 3:59 to further the lead to 17-11.
No. 9 Clayton Whiting took care of business in the 184 bout to close the gap once again to 17-14, and No. 6 Rocky Elam rode the newfound momentum with an 11-0 victory in the 197 to finally take a 19-17 lead.
In the final bout of the night, No. 6 Zach Elam daggered No. 20 Hunter Catka 8-1 to secure a 22-17 win and complete the comeback.
The Tigers move to 6-0 and will travel to No. 18 Stanford on Jan. 10.
*Rankings according to FloWrestling
