Mizzou winter sports teams preview upcoming, ongoing seasons
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Mizzou winter sports season has arrived. Along with MU men's and women's basketball, several programs like wrestling and swim and dive have officially kicked off their 2024-25 campaigns while gymnastics is continuing its preparation for its season opener on Friday, Jan. 3. In the winter sports spirit, head coaches and athletes from Mizzou wrestling, gymnastics and swimming and diving met with media members on Wednesday to spotlight their respective teams.
MU Wrestling is one dual and one tournament deep into its young season. The Tigers own a flawless 1-0 record after defeating Northern Colorado 25-14 on the road, and head coach Brian Smith led his team to a Tiger Style Invite championship on Saturday while crowning four individual champions, following wins from Keegan O'Toole, Josh Edmond, Colton Hawks and Cam Steed in the tournament's title matches.
The team is battling some injuries early this season. Seniors Rocky Elam and Noah Surtin have missed Mizzou's first two competitions of the 2024-25 campaign due to injury. Coach Smith said he expects Surtin to return in a couple of weeks and mentioned Elam has started drilling again but has not competed in a live match yet. Surtin and Elam's injuries have opened an opportunity for some young talent to get some experience, including freshmen Aeoden Sinclair and Gage Walker. So far, Coach Smith is impressed with his freshmen class.
"Just the way they love to practice. We don't have long practices yet. You would see us still in the room in two hours after because we end it and they stick around and want to grow and get better. That's a fun part of it. It's a culture we create, but they fall right into it, and they've been here since the summer," Smith said. "This [Virginia Tech] dual, we will start two freshmen with Gage Walker, who was a four-timer out of Oklahoma. He's filling in until Noah gets healthy, but he's just a great competitor and wants to learn and he's in there and in the fire and doing a great job. Aeoden Sinclair will get to wrestle a kid that's ranked like No. 13 in the country this week and he's the No. 1 recruit, so he's excited about it. He's jumping through the roof for it that he gets to go out there and compete in front of a crowd, so I love that."
Mizzou Swim and Dive has also gotten its latest campaign underway. The women's team began the young season with a win at Arkansas but lost its two most recent matchups with Purdue and Texas A&M, and the men's team is still searching for its first victory of the campaign after also falling to the Boilermakers and Aggies at the Mizzou Aquatic Center. The program's next meet is the Georgia Invitational in Athens where head coach Andrew Grevers' group will seek to regain some momentum.
"We are focusing on our team presence and implementing all the details we've been working on, up to this point, so details are starts, turns and finishes. But, it gets a little bit more elaborate than that, maybe how many dolphin kicks off every wall? Where in the race do we want to attack?" Grevers said. "We're going to be a little bit fresher for this meet and give our athletes every opportunity to, obviously, go for a lifetime best but, even better, qualify for NCAA's and start to establish that roster for the big meet."
Finally, Mizzou Gymnastics is preparing for an open intrasquad competition on Saturday ahead of its annual Black & Gold meet on Wednesday, Dec. 18. With talented freshmen, transfers and a core group of returners, head coach Shannon Welker's crew is focused on making their first NCAA Championships appearance as a team since the 2022 season, when the program placed fifth in the national semifinal.
"This is a group that has the maturity and talent, along with people like Helen [Hu] and Kyra [Burns], to help lead us back to Dallas Fort Worth for a trip to the NCAA Championships," Welker said.
"In the offseason, we've been focusing really on the details," Burns said. "Also, we've been focusing on our culture and what we've been building and making sure that we're not only great gymnasts but great people. If we're together as a team and unity and we're using all the things that we have built, that's what's going to make us stand out from other teams and what's going to propel us back to nationals."
