By Ryan Divish/Havre Daily News Sports Editor/rdivish@havredailynews.com
This time it's for real. This isn't an exhibition match against a Canadian opponent, a former Lights wrestler or a current Lights wrestler.
Nope, this time it counts for real.
The Montana State University-Northern wrestling team opens its official regular season tonight at 5 p.m. when it faces Western Wyoming College in Cody, Wyo. The Lights will follow that up with another dual against Si-Tanka Huron University at 6:30 p.m.
With these duals counting on the Lights record, you can be pretty sure head coach David Ray has only one expectation - victory.
With both opponents, a little inexperienced and a whole lot overmatched, domination might be a better word.
"We should be fine," Ray said. "We need get into these duals, get after and get some momentum build up for the tournament on Saturday."
The tournament Ray was speaking of is the Northwest College Open. The tourney in Rock Springs, Wyo. will feature six other teams besides Northern.
Dickinson State, University of Great Falls, Northwest College, Western Wyoming will bring teams along with a few members from University of Wyoming and the University of Mary.
"We wanted to start off with a tournament that wasn't too difficult," Ray said. "We want to give them some confidence. It's a good tournament for us to compare to other teams to see we are at."
One thing is fairly certain, few teams will be bringing as many wrestlers as the Lights. Ray will roll out 30 wrestlers to compete at the meet, which will more than send a statement to a few teams.
"It's a little intimidation factor, brining that many guys," he said. "Especially if we have a bunch of guys in the finals. It sets the tone to teams like Dickinson and UGF."
With almost three Northern wrestlers in each weight division, Ray expects his wrestlers to be squaring off against each other often in the tourney
"We should have a lot of guys seeing each other in semifinals, finals and consolation matches," he said.
With the very tough Cowboy Open a week away, Ray is using this tournament as a tune up.
"We want to get some confidence and momentum built up before we go to the Cowboy Open. I also want to see what kind of spirit, attitude and competitive fire we have as a team, compared to others."
Notes: Northern has been bitten by the injury bug losing senior Dustyn Azure for about three weeks with a broken hand. Newcomers Casey Kelly and A.J. Bartels are out with torn meniscuses. Sophomore David Waters won his division at last week's Dino Invitational in Calgary.
Dual Line-up
125 - Zach Morgan, Fr
133 - Michael McPeak,Fr
141 - Dan Shaw, Sr/Chris Smith, So
149 - Anthony Haukenberry, Jr
157 - Stryder Davis, Sr
165 - Aaron Jensen, Jr
174 - Emory Willson, Fr
184 - David Waters, So
197 - Brian Fritchman, Fr
HWT - Mazi Burke, Jr
NORTHWEST COLLEGE OPEN
Michael McPeak 125
Zach Morgan 125
Jason Harrington 125
Sean Costello 125
Brian Luna 133
Colt Heger 133
Albert Starrett 133
Chris Smith 141
Dan Shaw 141
Steven Boger 141
Matt Kilmartin 141
Anthony Haukenberry 149
Stryder Davis 157
Frank Jachetta 157
Ty Aiken 157
Aaron Jensen 165
Dale Seley 165
Ryan Mattingly 174
Emory Willson 174
Colter Dimas 174
Jesse Juarez 184
David Waters 184
Mazi Burke 197
Bridger Sacher 197
Brian Fritchman 197
Chase Gormley HWT
Josh Robinson HWT
J.R. Carter HWT
