CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The No. 9 Fighting Illini wrestling team is heading back on the road to travel to Columbia, Mo. to take on the No. 11 Missouri Tigers on Monday (Nov. 24) at 6:30 p.m. CT. They square off for the second time in eight days in a rematch from their seventh-place dual in the Paycom National Duals Invitational last Sunday (Nov. 16) where Illinois won, 26-18.
In their previous match Illinois was dominating out of the gate to the tune of a 26-3 lead following No. 21 Colin Kelly's (174 pounds) win because of injury default before the Tigers won a 184 pounds. The 197 pound bout was another injury default this time in favor of the Tigers and Illinois chose to forfeit the heavyweight bout as the dual was already locked up to not risk further injuries.
No. 7 Kannon Webster (157 pounds) and No. 8 Braeden Scoles (165 pounds) both had strong showing against Mizzou with Webster winning 5-3 in a dec. and Scoles won 20-5 in a tech. fall.
No. 1 Lucas Byrd (133 pounds) remains a perfect 6-0 winning all five matches during the National Duals with a tech. fall over Little Rock's Dillon Cooper 20-3 (4:35), 7-2 decision over Iowa's No. 2 Drake Ayala, tech. fall over Lehigh's Mason Ziegler 20-4 (6:31), 5-2 decision over Virginia Techs No. 17 Dillon Campbell and a pin in 1:12 on Missouri's No. 20 Kade Moore.
Byrd's win against Ziegler was his 100th career win and after the weekend he is now 102-16 in his career which is the 24th most wins in program history.
SCOUTING MISSOURI
Missouri had a strong start to their season going 3-0 blowing out Dury, Maryville and Central Methodist and cruised to a first-place finish in the Tiger Style Invite. They were quite hot coming into the National Duals Invitational and hit a well-oiled machine in No. 3 Iowa falling 34-3. They were able to win back-to-back matches with No. 22 Little Rock, 34-6, and No. 11 Michigan, 26-10, before falling to No. 9 Minnesota, 15-14, and No. 15 Illinois to end the National Duals
The Tigers are led by No. 2 Aeoden Sinclair (184 pounds) a redshirt freshman who is 10-1 this year who won both matches against Illinois and Minnesota. No. 17 Evan Bates (197 pounds) and No. 20 Zeke Seltzer (141 pounds) round out the top with Bates having a 10-3 record this year having big wins over Illinois and Minnesota. Seltzer sits at 9-2 defeating Illinois but falling to Minnesota in some notable matches.
The all-time series between the two squads is now 23-13 in favor of Illinois with the first meeting dating back to 1928.
