Cleveland, Ohio - Just one week after the school's Athletics Director wrote a resounding letter of appreciation and support for its wrestling program, Missouri pulled out a close 19-13 dual win over Hofstra in the NWCA National Duals quarterfinals.    Missouri's Mike Whitehead finished the dual with a 6-0 win at heavyweight over Dan Garay.    Hofstra took a 10-9 lead in the dual after a win at 165 lbs. by Ralph Everett over All-American Tyron Woodley. But freshmen Ben Askren (174) and Matt Pell (184) came up big for the Tigers, beating solid opponents to give Missouri a 16-9 lead with only two matches left.    Askren defeated Noel Thompson, 9-3, and Pell downed Brad Christie, 6-4.    "They show a lot of maturity," Missouri head coach Brian Smith said of his two freshmen. "Ben has always been a mature wrestler and never panics. A lot of wrestlers run from him now. He's close to impossible to get off the bottom from."    "Matt is fearless. There were 10 seconds left to go in his match and he goes for a takedown. Most freshmen wouldn't do that," Smith added.    But Smith has been concerned with the way his team has wrestled, especially as it goes into a key semifinal matchup with Penn State, one that is certain to give the winner the national recognition it already deserves.    "It's almost like we are wrestling too conservative. This is the second dual in-a-row that we haven't gotten a pin. We are wrestling to their style and we have to wrestle our style," Smith said.    "It's going to be that Big 10 style where they're going to go hard and come at you the whole time. We have to wrestle better against them. Hopefully we wake up here and start wrestling our style. They're a great team," he added of Penn State.    Penn State defeated in-state rival Pennsylvania 25-15 to advance to the semifinals.    The Nittany Lions received two wins by fall from Dewitt Driscoll (141 lbs.) and James Woodall (157) in the win. At heavyweight, All-American Pat Cummins solidified himself as one of the nation's top wrestlers with a 6-5 win over All-American Matt Feast of Pennsylvania.    "Our guys are wrestling well," Penn State head coach Troy Sunderland said. "The coaching staff is real proud of them. We are gaining confidence with each dual, and hopefully we can keep it up in the next round."    Defending NWCA National Duals champion Oklahoma State downed in-state rival Oklahoma 29-10 to advance to the quarterfinals in an Ohio version of Bedlam. The Cowboys defeated Oklahoma 23-12 earlier this season.    Oklahoma State was winning the dual 7-6 after four matches when freshman Johnny Hendricks (157) pinned Oklahoma's Matt Grice in four minutes. All-American Tyrone Lewis followed that up with a 17-second fall over Oklahoma's Rafael Maturino at 165 lbs., giving the Cowboys complete control of the dual meet.    The Cowboys will face Michigan in the semifinals. The Wolverines defeated Big 10 rival Minnesota 30-6. The win was the first for Michigan over Minnesota since 1996.    Michigan strung together a streak of five consecutive wins beginning with the 149-pound weight class, taking the Gophers out of the dual meet and sending them into the consolation round.    Michigan has lost all five meetings with Oklahoma State since the programs began competing against each other. The last win by the Cowboys was in 1997, when they defeated Michigan 30-2.    The semifinal session of the NWCA National Duals will begin at 8:30 p.m. (EST). TheMat.com will provide live coverage of the semifinal dual meets.    NWCA National Duals  at Cleveland, Ohio  Jan. 17-18, 2004  Quarterfinal Results  Oklahoma State 29, Oklahoma 10  Michigan 30, Minnesota 6  Penn State 25, Pennsylvania 15  Missouri 19, Hofstra 13