Trio of Mizzou sports underway to kick off the winter season
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Mizzou wrestling, gymnastics, and swimming and diving are all in full swing for the new season.
Head coach Brian Smith and the wrestling team concluded their third weekend of competitions on Saturday Nov. 15, with the national duels. The Tigers faced five teams all ranked within the top 25, picking up two match wins, including one against eleventh-ranked Michigan.
"When you break it down, there were a lot of tight matches," said head wrestling coach Brian Smith. "Even though we lost 9 of the 10 matches. I think 2 or 3 were in overtime, 4 or 5 were 1 point. They have to learn from that."
You can watch the full interview with the wrestling, gymnastics, and swimming teams in the video players above.
During day two of the national duels, redshirt freshman Aeoden Sinclair knocked off Minnesota's top-seeded Max McEnelly in their first time facing off in college. He followed up his performance by winning again on day two, this time against Illinois' 26th ranked Chris Moore.
"I think being in those matches early, some guys shy away from that," said Sinclair. "But me personally, I want it to be hard, I want a challenge, some guys don't want a hard season, but I want a hard season."
Gymnastics is set to perform at the Black and Gold intrasquad meet on Friday, Dec. 12. This marks the first time ever that the team will compete in Mizzou Arena, something head coach Shannon Welker has been vouching for since he took the job 13 years ago.
"I think we just had to have enough of a track record of success, along with partnering with some great administrators and some people that saw the vision that we saw," said Welker on moving meets into Mizzou Arena.
Regular season competitions start at the beginning of 2026, when the team hosts Iowa State on Jan. 4. The Tigers will face some of the nation's best in the weeks after, such as reigning national champion Oklahoma, as well as LSU, Florida, and Auburn.
"I'm excited to see we started and we're at at this point," said Welker. "Obviously, we lost some great routines from last year, but we've got some really great routines. They just need some development and some experience, or just getting back from a year's hiatus as well."
On Thursday, the Tigers' swimming and diving teams will host their second meet of the season. The Mizzou invite will take place over three days, and is the first competition where athletes will follow the championship schedule, with prelims in the morning and finals at night.
"We're looking to try to punch some tickets to NCAA's this week and set ourselves up for a great rest of the season," said head swim coach Andrew Grevers. "We're looking to set school records this week. We're looking to punch tickets to NCAA's and start to show where we can be for that end-of-season championship."
Both teams secured wins in their home debut, with the men defeating McKendree 213.5-85.5, and the women beating both McKindree and Vanderbilt, 244-40 and 236-57 respectively.
"We're in a tremendous conference in the SEC and we get the privilege of racing the best in the world, not just the country in the world," said Grevers. "We were fortunate enough to send a large group to the World Cup in Carmel, Indiana, and our athletes really set the tone for that meet, swimming with a bunch of Olympic gold medalists."
