Today the MAC conference announced their awards for the 2014-15 season and the Missouri Tigers made a clean sweep of MAC awards by winning Coach, Wrestler, and Freshman of the year. Winning the MAC Freshman of the year was All-American Willie Miklus.
Miklus is a former Southeast Polk high school wrestler where he was a two-time state champion for the Rams. After taking a year at the Olympic Training Center, Miklus enrolled at Missouri where he was expected to challenge for the 197 spot. With the emergence of 2014 NCAA champion J’den Cox, Miklus dropped to 184 for the season where he earned All-American honors by finishing seventh.
Miklus completed his first season as a starter with a 33-9 overall record which includes a second place finish at the MAC Wrestling Tournament where he fell to Old Dominion’s Jack Dechow, 6-4. Miklus opened the year with 18 consecutive victories. He also racked up 14 falls for his team, which placed him first among Missouri starters and scored 82 dual points which was good for second best on the team, trailing only J’Den Cox’s 87 points.
Also winning awards for Missouri were head coach Brian Smith for MAC Coach of the year, and Drake Houdashelt who earned Wrestler of the year honors.
[…] his season with a 33-9 record which included a MAC runner-up finish, which led to him also earning MAC Freshman of the Year. He got off to a bang in St. Louis when he pinned the #10 seed former All-American Lorenzo Thomas […]