COLUMBUS, Ohio -- After ending the dual tied at 19 apiece, No. 5 Missouri came away with a thrilling 20-19 dual win against No. 7 Ohio State Sunday afternoon at St. John Arena. The 20th and final team point for the Tigers resulted in the last criteria of the official NCAA wrestling tiebreaker rulings.
On the afternoon, Missouri grapplers earned three ranked wins against Top-10 opponents. The biggest of them all was by Drake Houdashelt, as he defeated Hunter Stieber via a fall at 2:39.
The Tigers and Buckeyes kick off the match with the 125 pounders as redshirt senior Alan Waters built an early advantage against Nathan Tomasello and held off a late push by the Buckeye to claim an 11-8 decision victory.
After a close loss at 133 pounds, the Tigers rebounded in a big way at 149 pounds with a fall by Houdashelt. The win against No. 3 Stieber evened the dual at nine apiece after four matchups.
Mizzou responded once again after a loss, as Cody Johnston earned a thrilling 9-7 SV1 victory against Ohio State's Justin Kresevic at 165 pounds. Once again the team scores were locked even, this time at 12.
Willie Miklus delivered perhaps the biggest win of the night at 184 pounds, earning a 12-2 major decision against Josh Fox. After the Buckeyes' Kyle Snyder followed up with a major decision victory of his own at 197 pounds, the team winner of the dual came down to the heavyweight battle between J'den Cox and Ohio State's Nick Tavanello.
A big takedown in the third period led to a 4-2 decision win for Mizzou's Cox and the match ended at 19 apiece.
With the final regulation score ending in a tie, the final tiebreaker came down to the official scorebook to decide the team dual winner. With the first several tiebreakers evened up, the last criteria came in to play as the team with the first takedown of the dual was honored a bonus team point. That ruling proved to be in Mizzou's favor as Alan Waters earned a takedown against Tomasello in the dual's first matchup.
