Throwback Fun on the Mat

It may be hard to fathom, with fall just getting started, but the winter sports season for Montana State University-Northern is not far off and this past Saturday, the Northern wrestling team kicked things off with its annual Alumni Dual.

The Lights, who are once again led by head coach Tyson Thivierge, took on an Alumni team that featured 11 All-Americans and two former national champions. And like usual, the Alumni dominated the meet, winning nine of the 12 shortened matches contested, to take the dual going away 41-9.

While the dual is a great chance for former Lights' greats to get back on the mat, one alumni in particular that was especially excited to come back this year was Caleb Schaeffer, who is currently the head coach at the University of Great Falls, but won a national title for MSU-N back in 2004.

Schaeffer, who said he hasn't been on a mat in years, certainly looked at home in his match, noting a victory by fall over Tyler Presser in less than a minute.

"It was great to be able to come back this year," Schaeffer said. "Sometimes, it's hard to get back, especially with my duties at UGF. But, Tyson invited me and it is awesome to be able to come back and wrestle with some of my old teammates."

When asked if it was a little strange to be a Light for the day, when he normally leads the Argos, Northern's fierce wrestling rival, he responded: "It's a little weird. But at the same time, it isn't that hard because I loved wrestling here. It's a great place and there were a lot of great guys here, so it was a lot of fun."

Schaeffer wasn't the only alum that enjoyed himself on the mat Saturday in the Armory Gymnasium, as he was one of three former Northern wrestlers to get a win by fall. The others were Ethan Hinebauch, who notched a fall over Andrew Bartel in 41 seconds and Brenton Beard, who pinned the Lights' Clayton Carter in 39 ticks.

Beard, who did double duty for the Alumni team, also got a win in the first match of the day, defeating Gavin Maslen via technical fall. Other Alumni victories included a win by Austin Ouelette, winning 2-0 over Drew Randall, a 9-0 win by Eric Dunmire over Dylan Lockwood, a 9-7 win by Willie Miller, in a hard fought match with Steeler French and a 4-0 victory by Cameron Neiss over Drake Randall.

Evan Hinebauch, another former national champion for the Lights, also earned a win for the alums, as he knocked off Adam Hokenson by a final of 11-0.

While most of the matches went to the Alumni team, the current Lights did manage to get a few into the column, starting with Brandon Weber, who defeated Bobby Mantle 1-0. Zach Haviland, a redshirt freshman, defeated Rudy James 9-7 in one of the dual's more exciting matches, and in the final contest of the day, senior Ben Stroh of Chinook, earned a 4-0 victory over Toby Cheff.

Former Northern head coach and soon-to-be member of the NAIA Hallf of Fame David Ray also officiated the dual.

With the Alumni Dual being a prelude to the start of what figures to be an exciting season of Northern wrestling, the Lights will turn to their annual Maroon/Gold Dual Wednesday night. The dual is set for 7 p.m. inside the Armory Gymnasium.