Lights shock No. 7 Southern Oregon at home

George Ferguson

Havre Daily News sports editor

[email protected]

Just when it appeared that the Montana State University-Northern wrestling team's 2005-06 season was being chalked up as a rebuilding year, the Lights decided otherwise.

On Friday night at the Havre Middle School gymnasium, the Lights stormed from behind to stun seventh-ranked Southern Oregon, 22-21, in an NAIA dual.

Northern trailed the Raiders 21-18 heading into the heavyweight bout. But Brian Fritchman, who normally wrestles at 197 pounds, earned a dramatic major decision over SOU's Taylor Wilkerson, 12-3, to give the Lights the upset.

“We wrestled well tonight,” MSU-N head coach Dan Troupe said. “This is a team who handled Dickinson State, who we just lost to, so this is a pretty big win for us.

“We had a lot of guys step up in the dual and wrestle well,” he added. “And then Brian Fritchman goes out and does an amazing job to get us the win, even though he was giving away a lot of weight.”

Not only was the final score of the dual an upset, so were some of the individual matches. Southern Oregon brought five nationally ranked wrestlers into Havre on Friday night and two of them didn't make it out of Havre with victories.

After Colt Heger got the Lights on the board with a pin of SOU's Barry Johnson at 141 pounds, the Lights got a big lift from Chris Smith at 149 pounds.

Smith, who has been plagued by injury for almost two full seasons, worked his way to an impressive 8-2 decision over No. 8-ranked Matt Holt.

“Chris Smith wrestled really well and he is finally starting to feel good again. That is good for him and it is really good for us.

“I thought Colt Heger was big for us too,” he added. “He has really matured a lot over the last month and right now he is flat out dominating people.”

At 157 pounds, Northern got a much-need win to keep pace with the Red Raiders. MSU-N's Kole Tolliver crushed No. 5-ranked Jimmy Ulrey, 9-2, to return the lead to the Lights.

Despite the heroics of Heger, Smith and Tolliver, Northern fell behind again as the Raiders won three straight matches to retake the lead.

Northern's Aaron Jensen was pinned by Jimmy Grochowsky, and Emory Willson lost an 8-5 decision to Josh Fitzgerald. Ryan Mattingly also dropped a heartbreaking, 5-4 decision to fourth-ranked Rick Story at 184 pounds.

That is when former Havre High standout Chad Seely pulled Northern back to within striking distance. With his team needing points in a hurry, Seely pinned Abe Ewing in the 197-pound match.

“Chad Seely got us a big win and he was really impressive,” Troupe said. “But even some of the guys who lost like Jensen and Emory Willson wrestled really well. And Mattingly wrestled a great match against a really tough kid. They were all up against some good opponents and they all wrestled hard.

“This was a good night for us,” Troupe added. “Right now things are really starting to come together and we have a lot of guys who are starting to put together some really good matches.”

The No. 18 Lights will now prepare to host the No. 5 University Of Great Falls Argos on Wednesday at the MSU-Northern Fieldhouse at 7 p.m. The Argos thumped the Lights in Great Falls in December.

Lights 22, Red Raiders 21

125 - Trevor Lofstebt, SO, pinned Brock Zollinger. 133 - Colt Heger, MSU-N, pinned Barry Johnson. 141 - Chris Smith, MSU-N, dec. Matt Holt, 8-2. 149 - Joey Janzen, SO, dec. Ty Aiken, 6-4. 157 - Kole Tolliver, MSU-N, dec. Jimmy Ulrey, 9-2. 165 - Jimmy Grochowsky, SO, pinned Aaron Jensen. 174 -Josh Fitzgerald, SO, dec. Emory Willson, 8-5. 184 - Rick Story, SO, dec. Ryan Mattingly, 5-4. 197 - Chad Seeley, MSU-N, pinned Abe Ewing. HWT - Brian Fritchman, MSU-N, maj. dec. Taylor Wilkerson, 12-3.