NWCA CLIFF KEEN NATIONAL DUALS • NCAA DIVISION I

By Mike Finn, W.I.N. Editor

If the game was poker, Missouri raised the stakes and Minnesota called … and still had the best hand with an ace in the hole.

            The Gophers also had the best wrestling team at the NWCA Cliff Keen National Duals in Cedar Falls, Iowa, where Minnesota had just enough to handle the Tigers biggest gamble of the tournament and leave the UNI-Dome with a 20-16 victory.

            “We had to start adding up points real quick, where we had to win,” said Gopher coach J Robinson, looking back at the championship dual. There weren’t any close matches in the first three weights and Minnesota won four of first five bouts to take a 14-4 lead before Missouri coach Brian Smith gambled and added drama by inserting freshman Nick Marable at 165, bumping Matt Pell and Ben Askren each up a weight to 174 and 184.

            “We put all our chips in,” said Missouri coach Brian Smith, hoping the Askren brothers would not only win, but score bonus points against a Minnesota team that presumably had at least three more points coming in the end with returning NCAA champion Cole Konrad at heavyweight.

            “It was a good thing on their part to do,” said Robinson. “It was a good tactic to do. But the thing they had to do was get bonus points, which they did not.”

            Marable beat Jeremy Larson, 5-3, Pell (who wrestled at 184 pounds two years ago) defeated Gabe Dretsch, 9-4, and Askren edged Roger Kish (ranked No. 2 at 184), 5-4. Even with the victory that pulled Missouri within 14-13, Askren said he felt that he lost to Kish, who scored a rare takedown against returning the Hodge Trophy winner.

            “(Kish) put me in positions that I wanted to be,” Askren said. “He got some shots and I didn’t expect him to shoot. I thought he’d back up the entire match to keep it close for his team to win. He gave me a match and I did not convert. That is the bottom line. I should have cradled him. When he shot, I should have gotten a cradle from there. I just have to go back to the drawing board and get better at those things.”

            The Tigers were also hoping for bonus points when younger brother and top-ranked Max Askren beat Brent Eidebschink, 11-5, at 197 pounds to give the Tigers a 16-14 lead.

            With just one match left, the inevitable happened as Konrad (who pinned Steve Mocco a year earlier to give Minnesota the 2006 Nationals Duals title over Oklahoma State) not only defeated Missouri’s unranked Tyler Perry but pinned the Missouri freshman in 2:13.

            “This is my ideal situation, said Konrad, who is now 16 for 16 in his career facing a must-win match for his team. “They have a lot of guys who can score big points and you have to be ready for that and take that into account. That’s why we figured it would come down to who got the most bonus points.”

            “We were going to make the decision after the first five matches,” said Smith, who also was hoping to rest an injured Raymond Jordan, his normal 184-pounder. “If we had gotten two wins in the first five, we were going with our straight line-up.

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