When #16 Missouri faces #10 Iowa State at noon Saturday in Columbia, the Tigers simultaneously will be ending one season and beginning another.

Out goes the 5-9 regular season (4-3 in the Big 12) that was ravaged by injuries and in comes a dual meet against a quality team that will help the Tigers prepare for the postseason.

And while the Tigers’ lineup won’t be what it was projected to be in November with the injury losses of Noah Surtin (125) and Rocky Elam (197), Missouri finally will welcome back two-time NCAA champ and top-ranked Keegan O’Toole at 174 and #10 Colton Hawks at 184.

“There’s no secrets to that, we’ve been saying we wanted to get them back for Iowa State,” Missouri coach Brian Smith said. “They've been training. They're back. They've been in practice all week. They're going to be ready to go, barring something happening tomorrow or the next day. But they're ready to go. 

“They'll have some tough matches, but it's definitely going to help with having the guys that were to be the starters.”

Smith said that O’Toole, who last wrestled in late December against #2 Levi Haines of Penn State (a 4-1 win in sudden victory), hasn’t really missed a practice. 

“He's done more sparring than live. He's done a little bit of live this past week and this week, so he's in shape from sparring and drilling,” he said.

“We were never going to hold him out this season. He knows he has to wrestle with an injury, and if anybody can do it … We saw him do it his sophomore year when he won the NCAAs and he tore his ankle up in the quarterfinals. He didn't get fazed by it. After the tournament, he could barely walk, but he just found a way to do it.”

Smith noted that O’Toole’s current injury happened in November. 

“He's been trying to go all season. So it's not easy, but if anybody can do it, it's Keegan,” he said.

Getting Back At It

The Tigers on Saturday will compete for the first time in 20 days after wins over Arizona State and West Virginia and losses to Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.

“It was just frustrating against Oklahoma, where we didn't score enough points and we let matches slip away at the end,” Smith said about the 22-13 loss to the Sooners in which three Tiger defeats were by three points or fewer. 

“It was a little frustrating as a coach that we're still making mistakes like that and not scoring… We just have to get where we're going to win tight matches and put them away when we have leads. And we had a lead at ‘33 and ‘41 and let those matches at Oklahoma slip away. And we shouldn't have. We're better than that, and we have to be, so it's just focus on that.”

Senior Moments

Saturday is Senior Day when at least 10 seniors will be honored, and Smith couldn’t find enough compliments.

“Just unbelievable young men that come in here, train every day, but also a lot of them are Academic All-America type kids when you look at Surtin and Keegan,” Smith said. “Those guys are very, very bright young men, and I think most of them are in grad school too. So they're working on their masters of whatever it may be.

“Keegan, of course, is going to be chasing a gold medal and wants to stay here and train, so he's going to be doing that. But it’s just how they live their lives. They come to practice, they live it to the fullest. I just think that's special, that these young men have been a part of the program, stuck with the program. You don't see too many senior nights with 10 guys, so I'm very grateful to them on what they do and how they approach the sport and live their lives.”

Bright Future Looming

The Tigers haven’t had a losing season in well over 20 years, but Smith said his team will have to learn from it.

“You've got to grow from it. You've got to battle through it. Sometimes you’ve got to go through these difficult times to realize that it can be tough,” Smith said. 

“We've had 20-some years where we haven't had a losing season, and we've been able to keep people healthy. This year it just happened to be that it all came together like that. I don't know why we had that many injuries. I don't know if it's because of COVID and the kids going five and six years … I don't know what it is.”

Smith said he and his staff the school’s medical staff will look at everything. 

“We do a lot of great things in our training, but these injuries occurred in these competitions. So we're just trying to figure it out and how we schedule next year and do things … but it happened,” he said.

“I believe in my coaches and my staff, my strength staff and my doctors and trainers that we're going to get to get together after the season, work on it, tweak some things, get better, and as a team, when the young guys get here in June, we'll start training them and getting them ready, and we'll be back to competing at a high level again. And I still think at the Big 12s and even in this dual with Iowa State, we're going to show some fight and show that it's still here,” Smith added.

Big 12s A Big Challenge

The Tigers will compete in the Big 12 Championships at BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, March 8-9.

“A realistic goal is trying to get as many guys out (to the NCAAs) as possible,” Smith said. “When I look at all of our guys, they're right on the bubble, except for maybe like a Keegan and a couple others. They're going to have to fight for those spots and win tight matches and have two great days of competition.

“I don't know what the qualifiers are going to be, how many, but we're going to have to battle for some spots to get some guys out to the NCAAs. So it's an interesting year for us.”