How Mizzou wrestlers fared in NCAA Championship brackets for next week’s meet
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- No. 2 Aeoden Sinclair headlines six Missouri wrestlers in Cleveland.
- Seeds run No. 2 to No. 32; matchups vary—some face higher seeds, some lower.
- Tournament runs March 19–21, streamed on ESPN+; some action on ESPN2/ESPN.
No. 2 seed Aeoden Sinclair headlines the Missouri Tigers’ contingent for next weekend’s NCAA Wrestling Championships.
Six Tigers will compete for titles during the three-day even at Rocket Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.
Sinclair (184 pounds) will face No. 31 seed Mahonri Rushton (Northern Colorado) to begin his run toward a potential crown. He beat Rushton 22-6 last time they wrestled, at a dual in January. The redshirt freshman is 30-1 this season.
Despite winning the Big 12 title, Cam Steed (174) gets a No. 7 seed and will wrestle 26th-seeded Derek Gilcher (Indiana) first.
No. 19 seed Gage Walker (133) wrestles 14th-seeded Ethan Berginc (Army) in the first round. Walker is coming off a fifth-place finish at the Big 12 Championships.
No. 25 seed Evan Bates (197) begins his revenge tour with a familiar foe. He will wrestle eighth-seeded D.J. Parker (Oklahoma) after losing by major decision (18-4) when they met in February. Bates is also hoping to fare better at this tournament than he did last weekend, when he went 0-2 in Tulsa and had to settle for an at-large bid.
This is Bates' third NCAA tournament appearance, with his previous two coming during his time at Northwestern.
No. 28 seed Jarrett Stoner (285), after finishing in fifth place last weekend, begins his tournament wrestling fifth-seeded Nick Feldman (Ohio St.) in the first round.
No. 32 seed Mack Mauger (125), after finishing in seventh place at the Big 12 Championships and earning an at-large bid, will wrestle in the pigtail matchup vs 33rd-seeded Jace Schafer (Bloomsburg). The pigtail matchup is a play-in, with the winner advancing to wrestle the top seed — in this case, Luke Lilledahl of Penn State. This is Mauger's first NCAA Wrestling Championships.
Josh Edmond (149) was selected as an alternate for this tournament at his weight class. This means if someone drops out, he would replace him. Edmond is a three-time NCAA qualifier who finished seventh at the Big 12 Championships last weekend.
MU’s Teague Travis (165), after having two opportunities to clinch a bid on the final day of the Big 12 Championships and losing both to finish in sixth, did not make the field — even as an alternate. He joins Max Mayfield (165), who went 1-2 last weekend, as wrestlers whose collegiate careers are over after a disappointing finish at the league tourney.
Travis was a two-time NCAA qualifier at Oklahoma State. Mayfield was a three-time NCAA qualifier at Northwestern.
This year’s national tournament in Cleveland runs Thursday, March 19 through Saturday, March 21. It begins with prelims at noon (those pigtail matchups and maybe some of the first-round matches), followed by more prelims at 7 p.m. (with some wrestle-backs, or consolation matches, too).
The whole event will be streamed on ESPN+. Some of the Thursday, March 21 action will also be aired on ESPN2 at noon Central Time and ESPN at 7 p.m. CT.
Copyright 2026 Columbia Missourian
This story was originally published March 13, 2026 at 1:59 PM with the headline "How Mizzou wrestlers fared in NCAA Championship brackets for next week’s meet."