Missouri dominates MAC championships, qualifies all 10 wrestlers to nationals

Missouri wrestled its way to a fourth straight conference championship Sunday, achieving a Mid-American Conference three-peat in dominating fashion at the Hearnes Center.

The Tigers, who also won the 2012 Big 12 title and are the first MU program since men’s basketball in 1980-83 with four consecutive conference crowns, had five individual champions and totaled 139 1/2 team points — 42 more than runner-up Old Dominion — to the delight of a partisan crowd of 2,023.

“It’s pretty emotional, because I think of the senior class and it’s a special class,” MU coach Brian Smith said. “We have some special kids. … These guys are wrestling for a bigger purpose. Every weekend of the year, they’ve been wrestling that way. It’s a very unselfish team, which makes a special team.”

Missouri’s score is the highest in MAC history, breaking the record of 136 that Smith’s team set two years ago.

Perhaps the Tigers’ best win came last, with senior heavyweight Devin Mellon’s 4-2 upset of top-seeded Blaize Cabell of Northern Iowa serving as a fitting finale.

“I had a mission,” Mellon said. “It’s my senior year and I had a sense of urgency. I just was really mentally focused.”

Mellon, 30-9, who had suffered two narrow defeats earlier in the season against Cabell, had a first-period takedown and made it stand up.

Before that, senior Alan Waters got Missouri’s victory lap off to a strong start with an 11-4 win over Northern Iowa’s Dylan Peters in the 125-pound final.

Waters, 30-0, picked up two first-period takedowns, including one at the horn, and was in control throughout.

It was Waters’ second MAC title. He also won in 2013, while Peters won the 2014 conference championship when Waters took a redshirt season.

Waters was chosen the meet’s most outstanding wrestler by the conference’s coaches, but Sunday was about Missouri’s team, not an individual award.

“It makes everything a lot more fun when everyone’s working together,” Waters said. “It really helps out individually also — just everybody building off each other and learning from each other. It’s been one of the most fun seasons I’ve ever had.”

Waters moved into a tie with Wes Roper for the second-most wins in Missouri wrestling history. He is 131-13 in his career, while Roper went 131-37 during 1978-82.

Ben Askren owns the all-time MU record with 153 wins.

Senior Drake Houdashelt also made history at 149 pounds, becoming the first four-time conference champion in Tigers’ history with a 5-2 decision over Old Dominion’s Alexander Richardson.

“He quietly just wins and does the job,” Smith said. “He’s physical and gets after it and never changes. He’s going into NCAAs healthy and really feeling strong. I’m excited for it.”

Houdashelt, 32-1, ranks fourth on Missouri’s all-time list with 129 career wins.

Sophomore J’den Cox repeated as MAC champion at 197 with a 3-1 win over Ohio’s Phillip Wellington.

Three Tigers got automatic berths to the NCAA Division I wrestling national championships in dramatic fashion.

Sophomore Zach Synon trailed Central Michigan’s Tyler Keslering by a point midway through the third period before taking the lead on a double-leg takedown and riding out the final 1:04 for a 4-2 win during the 133-pound championship match.

Synon, 31-11, claimed the weight class’ only automatic NCAA berth in the process.

Fellow sophomore Lavion Mayes wound up third at 141, earning the MAC’s final automatic berth at that weight.

He scored a takedown with 2 seconds left in the third period for a 6-4 win over Northern Iowa’s Jake Hodges.

Missouri senior 165-pounder Mikey England officially finished fifth, which is where he was seeded, but he challenged Northern Illinois’ Shaun’Qae McMurtry for the fourth and final automatic NCAA berth from the weight class.

England, who avenged a first-round loss against Central Michigan’s Jordan Wohlfert in the fifth-place match to earn the chance at a challenge, secured the national-tourney berth with a 4-1 win.

As a result, all 10 Tigers qualified for the national tourney, a feat the program also achieved in 2012 and 2013. It is, however, the first time MU qualified all 10 wrestlers automatically for the national tourney.

“We were sitting right up there in (section) C12 cheering them on and everything,” Cox said. “To see Synon win, that was huge. We knew Lavion could do what he needed to do. … To see Mikey come out and get a spot as well, that was humongous. Just getting all 10 guys, that was a humungous deal. We knew coming in here that we needed to get all 10 guys, and we got it done.”

Sophomore Joey Lavallee (157), senior Johnny Eblen (174) and freshman Willie Miklus (184) lost their respective finals.

This story was originally published March 8, 2015 at 4:37 PM with the headline "Missouri dominates MAC championships, qualifies all 10 wrestlers to nationals."