Tiger Style Wrestling Takes on NCAA Championships in Cleveland

Thursday, March 19

Cleveland, Ohio

11 a.m.

Missouri

Session I

Overhead view of multiple wrestlers warming up on a large black mat at an NCAA venue. Several pairs grapple in different areas of the circle, while coaches and staff stand along the edge observing. Gear and equipment sit near the boundary, and a scoreboard is visible off to the side.

Tiger Style Wrestling Takes on NCAA Championships in Cleveland

3/18/2026 11:41:00 AM | Wrestling

Missouri at NCAA Championships
Match Details	Thursday, March 19 - Saturday, March 21 • Rocket Arena • Cleveland, Ohio
Match Coverage	Schedule \| Brackets \| Live Updates
Match Notes	Missouri
Social Media	Twitter: @MizzouWrestling \| Instagram: @MizzouWrestling

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Mizzou wrestling heads to the 2026 NCAA Wrestling Championships at Rocket Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, on March 19-21, 2026.

Sessions I and II will take place on Thursday, March 19, with sessions III and IV on Friday, March 20, and sessions V and VI on Saturday, March 21. Action can be viewed on the ESPN family of networks and streamed at any time on ESPN+.

BIG 12 RECAP

Missouri wrestling concluded the 2026 Big 12 Wrestling Championships in fourth place with 84.5 points. This season's finish marked a 19-point improvement upon 2025's Big 12 finish.
Two Tigers were crowned as the individual champions of their respective weights.
At 174 pounds, redshirt junior Cam Steed made his second consecutive appearance in the conference finals. He avenged three prior losses en route to a 10-6 win in the finals. Steed won his first individual title and the second in a row at 174 pounds for Mizzou (O'Toole, 2025).
Redshirt freshman Aeoden Sinclair followed immediately with a Big 12 title of his own at 184 pounds. Sinclair secured two technical falls on his path to his first spot atop the podium.
Outside of the two champions, five more Tigers reached the podium in Tulsa to make it a total of seven placewinners on the weekend. The other five medals went to Mack Mauger (seventh, 125), Gage Walker (fifth, 133), Josh Edmond (seventh, 149), Teague Travis (sixth, 157) and Jarrett Stoner (fifth, 285).

2025 NATIONALS

At the 2025 NCAA Wrestling Championships, Mizzou wrestling finished 14th out of 66 teams, totaling 32 team points.
Two Tigers paved their way to the podium and All-American honors in Cam Steed at 165 pounds and Keegan O'Toole at 174 pounds.
Steed saw six matches at the tournament, putting together a 4-2 record en route to a seventh-place finish in his first national tournament appearance. Steed also collected three falls to earn the Gorrarian Award.
O'Toole reeled off four straight wins before dropping his match to Oklahoma State's Dean Hamiti Jr. in the national final at 174 pounds to finish in second place. In his final campaign, O'Toole made his third appearance in the finals, along with a program-best fifth All-American honors.
In addition to Steed's three falls, O'Toole tallied both a fall and a major decision to give the Black and Gold five total bonus point wins on the weekend.
Missouri's six qualifiers combined for a record of 9-11 at the 2025 NCAA Wrestling Championships.
Following the 2025 Tigers' 14th-place finish, the program has closed the season in the top-15 at the NCAA Championships for 12 consecutive seasons, a streak going back to the 2013 tournament.

NCAA HIGHLIGHTS

Missouri's highest team finish came in the 2006-07 season when it scored 80 points to finish third. The 2007 team tallied three All-Americans: Tyler McCormick (133) placed sixth, Matt Pell (165) placed third, and Ben Askren (174) brought home the hardware with his second national title.
The Black and Gold's highest point total at a national tournament was 86.5 in the 2016-17 season when it scored 86.5 points in a fifth-place effort. That season, Lavion Mayes (149) and Joey Lavallee (149) made the national finals, and two other Tigers finished on the podium.

TOP-10 TEAMS

Mizzou has 13 total top-10 finishes at the NCAA Championship, with two being top-four finishes that earned the program a team trophy. The two trophies came in 2006-07 when Missouri took third place, and in 2014-15 when it finished in fourth place.
12 of the 13 top-10 finishes came under current head coach Brian Smith, who took the helm in 1998-99. The Tigers' most recent top-10 finish came in the 2022-23 season, where they claimed fifth.
Missouri's only top-10 finish prior to the hiring of coach Smith came in the 1983-84 season, in which the boys in Black and Gold placed tenth with 29 points under the leadership of head coach Bob Kopinsky.

STORIED HISTORY

Six individuals have brought home 10 total national titles in a Mizzou singlet. J'den Cox leads the way with three (2014, 2016, 2017), just ahead of Ben Askren (2006, 2007) and Keegan O'Toole (2022, 2023) with two each. Mark Ellis (2009), Max Askren (2010) and Drake Houdashelt (2015) round out the bunch with one apiece.
Mizzou is still seeking its first tournament with multiple NCAA National Champions.
B. Askren holds a special place in Mizzou history as the only Tiger to win the Hodge Trophy, bringing the award home twice, in the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons. He is also the only Missouri wrestler to be named the Outstanding Wrestler of the NCAA Championship, to go along with his 2006 title.

GORRARIAN GLORY

The Gorrarian Award honors the wrestler at each NCAA Championship who picks up the most falls in the least amount of time. Four Mizzou wrestlers have been honored with the award.
Matt Pell was the first Tiger to bring home the Gorriaran at the 2007 NCAA Championships. Pell tallied four falls in 20:46 during his tournament, which ended with a third-place finish.
Daniel Lewis was awarded the Gorriaran after the completion of the 2019 tournament, in which he secured three falls in 8:24. Lewis finished that tournament in fourth place at 174 pounds.
Keegan O'Toole brought home the award after a third-place finish at the 2024 event, where he picked up three falls in 12:59.
Redshirt sophomore Cam Steed marks the most recent Gorriaran in the Tigers' trophy case, bringing home the honor last season. He racked up three falls in 7:00 to earn the award to go along with his seventh-place finish.
Missouri was the first team to win the Gorriaran in back-to-back seasons since Penn State did so three consecutive years from 2011-2013, and is now the fourth team to achieve this feat.

SUPER SIX

The Black and Gold are sending six qualifiers to the NCAA Wrestling Championships for the second consecutive season.
Mizzou earned four automatic bids at the recent Big 12 Conference Championships (Walker, Steed, Sinclair and Stoner) and two at-large bids to the national tournament (Mauger and Bates).
Prior to last season, Missouri had seven or more qualifiers for 13 consecutive tournaments.
Each time that a Smith-led team brought six representatives, Missouri was represented with a wrestler in the national finals. Missouri has also had exactly two All-Americans at each Championship with six qualifiers.
Of Missouri's six qualifiers, four are headed to their first NCAA Championships. The only Tigers to make a return appearance this season are Cam Steed at 174 pounds and Evan Bates at 197 pounds, who previously qualified for Northwestern before coming to Columbia.

MACK TRUCK MAUGER

Pigtail: 125 | [32] Mack Mauger (MIZ) vs [33] Jace Schafer (Bloomsburg)
Mauger earned one of his weight's five at-large bids to qualify for the first national tournament of his career.
Throughout the 2025-26 season, Mauger has accumulated three wins against opponents in the field at 125 pounds: Diego Sotelo (Michigan), Spencer Moore (Illinois) and Kysen Terukina (North Carolina).
The native of Blackfoot, Idaho, has tallied five major decisions, two technical falls and three falls throughout the course of the season.
Mauger's first bout will come in a pigtail before the official first round begins, making him the first Tiger to compete in a championship pigtail since Barlow McGhee (125) in 2017.
With a record of 22-14 heading into the tournament, only five wrestlers in his bracket have more wins than Mauger does. This includes having the same number of or more wins than every one of the top-10 seeds at 125 pounds.
Mauger's opponent, Jace Schafer, holds a record of 23-8 competing for Bloomsburg. Schafer brought home a second-place finish at the MAC Championships to earn an automatic qualification.

GAGE ON THE BIG STAGE

Round One: 133 | [19] Gage Walker (MIZ) vs [14] Ethan Berginc (Army)
Walker earned one of the automatic qualifications to the national tournament following an upset win of Northern Colorado's Dominick Serrano in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Championships.
Walker punched his ticket to his first NCAA Championships in his second postseason for the Black and Gold. Last season, he went 1-2 at the Big 12 Championships at 125 pounds, failing to qualify for the nationals.
This season, Walker holds four wins over other members of the 133-pound field.
Walker's opponent, Ethan Berginc, earned the No. 14 seed after a runner-up finish at the EIWA Championships, losing only to American's Maximilian Leete.
Walker and Berginc have yet to wrestle in their respective careers, but they both hold a 1-1 record against common opponents.
Should Walker win, he is likely to face Penn State's No. 3 Marcus Blaze. This would be the second Nittany Lion foe of his career after a close 5-4 match with 125-pounder Luke Lilledahl last season.

STEED STAMPEDE

Round One: 174 | [7] Cam Steed (MIZ) vs [26] Derek Gilcher (Indiana)
Steed is now two-for-two in his career in earning automatic qualifications at the Big 12 Championship after his second straight conference finals appearance.
A Collinsville, Oklahoma, native, Steed is one of only seven Oklahoma natives to earn a spot at the big dance this season. He is joined by teammate and fellow Oklahoman Gage Walker, a native of Jay, Oklahoma.
Coming in as the No. 7 seed, the redshirt junior improves upon his tournament draw from last season, where he earned the No. 9 seed and finished in seventh place.
Steed is currently the wrestler with the second-most falls on the Missouri roster. His total is 18 falls across his career, including his redshirt season in 2022-23.
Entering the weekend, Steed holds five wins this season over other competitors in the 174-pound field.
His first round opponent will be Indiana's Derek Gilcher, who just recently finished in 10th place at the Big Ten Championships for the Hoosiers and enters the national tournament with a record of 14-10.
Gilcher wrestles in the Big Ten Conference, of which Steed has had his share of success against. The Tiger holds a record of 5-3 in his career against Big Ten foes.

SINCLAIR STATE OF MIND

Round One: 184 | [2] Aeoden Sinclair (MIZ) vs [31] Mahonri Rushton (Northern Colorado)
Sinclair earned his first career Big 12 Conference title in his first attempt in order to punch his ticket to the big show with an automatic qualification.
Compiling a record of 30-1, the Edgerton, Wisconsin, native earned the No. 2-seed at 184 pounds, only behind Penn State's Rocco Welsh. Of his 30 wins, 14 of them have come against fellow qualifiers at 184 pounds.
Sinclair has lit up the scoreboard this season, scoring 13 technical falls, earning him a spot in the top-10 of the NCAA's Tech Fall Leaderboard.
The No.2-ranked wrestler also led the team with seven falls this season, in addition to one match ending early due to injury default. Of his 21 matches with an early termination, 12 of them did not make it out of the first period, ending in three minutes or less.
Across the 2025-26 season, Sinclair holds a bonus win percentage of 70.97%, one of the best in the country.
Should Sinclair advance to the quarterfinals, he is likely to face off with Iowa's Angelo Ferrari, his only loss of the season. Ferrari won a nail-biter in tiebreakers against Sinclair at the National Duals Invitational.
A potential semifinal opponent for the Tiger is Minnesota's Max McNelly, a familiar foe. The pair faced off at the National Duals Invitational, a bout won by Sinclair 6-3. The duo has also faced off plenty on the freestyle circuit, where McEnelly holds a 3-1 advantage, but the folkstyle record still sits in Sinclair's favor.

EVAN VS EVERYBODY

Round One: 197 | [25] Evan Bates (MIZ) vs [8] DJ Parker (Oklahoma)
Bates accumulated a 21-9 record in his redshirt senior campaign, good enough to earn one of four at-large bids to the NCAA Championships.
The Chesterton, Indiana, native punched his ticket to the third national tournament of his career after qualifying in both 2024 and 2025 while wrestling for the Northwestern Wildcats. He has gone 1-2 in both of his appearances.
Bates put together an impressive season, tallying the most single-season wins of his career (21) and putting up 14 total wins by bonus points.
Bates has five wins this season over wrestlers represented in the 197-pound field. His highlight win of the season came at Hustle in the Heartland, where he knocked off Nebraska's returning All-American Camden McDanel, 4-1. McDanel earned the No. 11 seed in the bracket.
In his first round match, the Tiger is set to face off against a Big 12 Conference foe, the No. 8-seed DJ Parker of Oklahoma. Parker is coming off a fourth-place finish at the conference tournament and holds a 19-8 record.
Bates and Parker recently faced off in a dual meet in Hearnes Center on Feb. 12, 2026, with the Sooner winning that bout by an 18-4 major decision.

SET IN STONE(R)

Round One: 285 | [28] Jarrett Stoner (MIZ) vs [5] Nick Feldman (Ohio State)
Closing out the qualifiers at 285 pounds, Stoner earned the last automatic qualification for the Black and Gold by taking down Cal Baptist's Tristan Kemp in the consolations at the conference tournament.
Stoner secured a fifth-place finish in his first postseason appearance for Mizzou. He placed two spots above his seed to steal a bid to the tournament.
The Rockwall, Texas native has won two matches this season against opponents from the national tournament field at 285 pounds. Most recently, he recorded a six-point win against South Dakota State's Luke Rasmussen at the Big 12 Championships.
Compiling a record of 23-14 in his redshirt sophomore campaign, the first-year starter has put together bonus point wins in eight of his matches.
Stoner's schedule has proven to be daunting, having him toe the line against five separate top-10 opponents over the course of the season.
In his first match of the NCAA Championships, the Tiger will hit the mat to take on Ohio State's No. 5 Nick Feldman. Feldman comes in with a 23-5 record and a recent third-place finish at the Big Ten Championships.
Stoner enters the weekend with a 6-6 career record against Big Ten opponents and has yet to face off against an Ohio State wrestler.
The NCAA Championships will be the 285-pounder's fifth tournament of the 2025-26 season, and he has placed in the top eight at each of the previous four.

MOST WINS (Active, 50+)

Josh Edmond (81), Max Mayfield (77), Evan Bates (73) and Luqman Masud (67)

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