MSU-N's Garrett DeMers earns top rookie wrestling honor

Summer is coming, and the NAIA wrestling season is still a long way off. But the Montana State University-Northern wrestling team had plenty of big news over the past week.

Recently, MSU-N redshirt-freshman Garrett DeMers was named to the All-Rookie Team by Amateur Wrestling News for the 2014 season. DeMers, who was only one of three NAIA wrestlers to make the list, finished fifth for the Lights at 197 pounds at the NAIA national tournament back in March. DeMers went 28-11 on the season, and will certainly enter the 2014-15 campaign was one of the top upper-weight wrestlers in all of the NAIA.

“We are very proud of Garrett and his accomplishments and look forward to seeing much more from this young man,” said MSU-N head coach Tyson Thivierge. “Oh, and by the way, he received a 3.82 GPA this spring with his All-American honors while studying Business at MSU-N. Congrats is well deserved for him.”

Meanwhile, Thivierge also announced the addition of two more grapplers to the recruiting class of 2014 last week. MSU-N has added Terry Mason, a high school signee from Reno, Nevada, as well as Cole McArthur, a former standout from Ronan and a transfer from Northwest College.

Mason won a Nevada state championship this past season at 170 pounds, and is a four-time state placer. He also finished fourth as a freshman and sophomore and second as a junior. Mason will major in Health Promotions at MSU-N.

“Terry has lots of national exposure, he placed eighth at the NHSCA Junior Nationals in 2013 and was just shy of repeating his All-American honors this season posting a 4-2 record at the Senior Nationals in Virginia Beach, Virginia,” Thivierge said. “We are very excited to have him on board, we look forward to him continuing his impressive career here at Northern. He is projected to wrestle at 165 for the Lights and will make an immediate impact in the room with his experience gained throughout his high school career. Terry is a no-nonsense wrestler on the mat, he comes out firing and is not afraid to mix it up with anyone, which is something we really like in him. We are really excited about what we can do for him and what he is going to do for us for years to come.”

McArthur adds yet another star from Ronan, and when he was there, as a three-time Class A state placer, he was coached by current MSU-N assistant Dustyn Azure. At Northwest College, he finished fifth at 174 pounds at the NJCAA national tournament.

“We really like the familiarity of Cole and look forward to him pushing our guys in those upper weights,” Thivierge said. “He went 1-1 with Jared Miller this season, so we know he can wrestle. The one thing I really like about Cole is how much he has matured as a collegiate athlete.  He is not a quitter, and he will give you everything he has all the time. We have been around him a lot and his grinding style will fit in well here with us. To have a kid lose his first match at the national tournament (as Cole did this year in an overtime upset) and pick himself up and run through the tournament like he has nothing to lose, those are qualities that coaches like to see. We are extremely excited to have him on board. Right now we are looking at putting Cole at either 174 or 184. Cole is a team player and will go where he feels the team needs him most.”