Wrestlers open dual season against Missouri

The No.18 Hoosiers head to the University of Missouri Friday night to take on the No. 16 Tigers. It will be the first dual meet of the season for IU, while Missouri defeated No.14 Illinois in its first dual meet. \nThe Hoosiers experienced success against Missouri in the past, winning the last eight matches. But the Tigers are having an up year and the contest should be a battle.\n\"Every match that they\'re ranked ahead of us is a big match," head coach Duane Goldman said. "They\'ve already won a dual, and this is our first one."\nGoldman will be able to assess his team's strengths and weaknesses for the first time.\n"I know our potential," Goldman said. "However, we have four or five new guys on varsity and new to Indiana that I haven't seen in competition. I'm anxious to see where we're at. I also want to see quality performances out of our returnees."\nThe dual match format has each competitor wrestle once. This differs form the tournament set-up, like the Missouri Open which IU participated in two weeks ago, where each person wrestles several people. This allows the wrestlers to pay more attention to a single opponent.\n"I've been preparing mentally for a week," junior Ty Matthews said. "I watch more tape. I also wrestled (the Missouri opponent) before so I know the things that he will try to do against me. I try to concentrate on what I can do to counter him."\nJunior Greg Schaefer also said that competing against one opponent allows you to put your whole focus on just one guy.\nBoth Matthews and Schaefer are ranked individually in the top 20 along with sophomores Coyte Cooper and Steve Amy. and senior Viktor Sveda. Matthews said rankings don't matter until the end of the season. Schaefer agrees.\n"You let your wrestling take care of your ranking," Schaefer said. "Rankings don't mean anything right now. Hopefully, I will be at the top at the end of the season."\nHeading into a hostile Missouri arena, Goldman is looking forward to the experience for his team.\n"There will be an antagonistic crowd and a ref that will be against us," Goldman said. "It will be good for the new guys in to be put into that situation. Those are the fun places to compete and win"