Wrestling on blue mat No. 4 for both of his matches, Marable strapped on green ankle-bands and shutdown eighth-seeded Moza Fay of Northern Iowa, 7-4, in his morning match and followed with a 3-2 decision of Cornell's Mack Lewnes to finish his first NCAA Tournament in third place. Marable closed out his season with a 27-4 record and finished the tournament with Missouri's best showing, 5-1. The meeting between Fay and Marable was the first of the season but the second of Marable's career. In Marable's redshirt freshman season, Fay earned a 5-2 decision, Dec. 3 at the UNI Open. In Saturday's match, Marable was first to score, managing two takedowns in the first period, followed by a single takedown in the second. Marable held his UNI opponent to only four escapes, and for the first time of the season, recorded over a minute-and-a-half of riding time, securing one point for his 1:40 of work.
Marable and Lewnes squared off for the second time of the season in a battle for third place. The two grapplers with similar style and size were scoreless through the first period. Starting down to start the second period, Marable escaped in seven seconds and took down Lewnes with 1:28 left in the period. Allowing Lewnes only two escapes, the result of the third-place match was the same as that of their previous meeting, Jan. 27 in the Hearnes Center.
"The last time we met it was a close match," Marable said. "My whole body hurts after three days of hard wrestling. But I knew I had to find a way to win and I did. I feel that I've wrestled better these past three days than I have all year."
After suffering a one point loss, 3-2, to Michigan's Tyrel Todd, Jordan took his fifth place match with Iowa's Phillip Keddy into overtime where he scored a takedown 33 seconds into the one minute overtime period to win, 6-4. Jordan was down 2-1 entering the second period but escaped six seconds into the second to tie the match at two. In the third, Keddy escaped Jordan's hold but was quickly returned to the mat only to escape one final time for the 4-4 tie that forced overtime.
"We both wanted to go out on a good note, so we both were wrestling hard," Jordan said. "It was tough to get back up and wrestle after losing last night. But I had to shake it off and finish with a win."
Missouri's Askren recorded the final Tiger victory of the tournament with an 11-4 win in overtime over Iowa State's David Bertolino. The victory was Askren's third of the season over the Big 12 grappler and helped the Tiger claim his first All-America honor in his second Tournament appearance. Askren recorded four takedowns in his bout with Bertolino the final coming with four seconds remaining in overtime.
"I can't complain too much about finishing seventh," Askren said. "It's not where I wanted to finish, but it's still a win. If nothing else, it really motivates me for next year."
Championship finals are slated to begin at 7:30 p.m. (CT) and will air live on ESPN. Missouri sits in 11th with 48.5 points after the completion of the fifth session, while Iowa has all but locked up the team title with 109.5 team points. Big 12 opponent Nebraska stands in second with 74 points, while Iowa State is in third with 72.
"It's tough losing the heartbreaker matches that we did the other night," Head Coach Brian Smith said. "Our guys did a good job of walking it off and coming back strong today. These three wrestlers (Marable, Jordan and Askren), have wrestled consistent all year.
"Our team has spring break this week and they'll have some time to relax and get recharged," Smith said. "When they get back, we'll start working towards next year."
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