Lights leave Hawks feeling blue

Senior night on the wrestling mat is special, it's emotional and it's sometimes difficult. Not only for the seniors being honored, but for their teammates who want to do so well for them and send them out in the manner they deserve.

For the Montana State University-Northern Lights, and their three seniors, Thursday night's home finale against the Dickinson State Blue Hawks was all of those things, but most of all, it was fun and it was exciting.

Led by outgoing seniors Tommy Cooper, Ben Stroh and Taylor Kornoely, who all won in their final matches at MSU-N, the No. 5 Lights beat the Blue Hawks 29-11 in an NAIA showdown Thursday night at the Armory Gymnasium.

"I was really proud of the how much pride and passion all of our kids showed tonight," Northern head coach Tyson Thivierge said. "Right before we went on the mat, I just told them, show us how much pride you have in yourselves and in this program out there. Honor these great seniors in that way, and every single one of our guys, win or lose, did that tonight. This was a fun, fun dual."

Perhaps no one exemplified senior night more than Cooper. The soon-to-be two-time Academic All-American from Laurel has dealt with ups and downs and injury setbacks during his Lights' career, but in his final bout on his own mat he showed what Northern wrestling is all about. Cooper moved up to 165 pounds, and yet it made no difference as he jumped out to a 4-0 lead before turning DSU's Devan Williams on his back for a first-period pin.

"I bumped up a weight because that's what the team needed some of us to do tonight," Cooper said. "But whatever weight I was going to wrestle, I was just going out there to do my job and make sure I took care of business. I caught him in a bad position and got the pin. So it was special to win like that, but more than that, it just always feels good to know you did your job for the team."

"So happy and proud of Tommy Cooper," Thivierge said. "Wow, he just went out and wrestled great. It was so great to see him do that tonight."

Many Lights did the same on Thursday night, including Stroh, who moved up from his usual 184-pound slot to face DSU 197-pounder Jon Solano. And like Stroh has done so many times before on mats up and down the Hi-Line, he showed what a technically great wrestler he is. Giving away some pounds, Stroh still scored three take downs and was dominant on top in a 6-4 decision, which will be the last of his brilliant career on mats in the Havre and Chinook area.

And not to be outdone, Kornoely was his usual dominant self on senior night, as he went out and also gave away a lot of weight to DSU's Ethan Goss-Dickie, but still controlled the match on his way to a 9-0 major decision.

"Very happy for our seniors," Thivierge said. "They went out the way they deserved to. But I'm also proud of all the guys in our lineup because they really wrestled hard and really wrestled well. They wanted to honor these seniors tonight with a win, and they got the job done."

Indeed. Northern's youth movement was very good, too, especially right off the bat when freshman Rob Pair went out and scored an 8-7 decision at 125 pounds. Trailing for much of the match, Pair tied things up at 6-6 early in the third, before scoring a takedown for the win with just :14 left. He also held on to the top advantage for the final 14 seconds to secure his thrilling victory.

And while Thursday night was senior night, it was also a showcase for the young talent Northern has right now. Pair's victory was exciting, as were wins by Matt and Brandon Weber, who were both wrestling at home for the first time all season. At 141 pounds, Matt Weber was way ahead on points in the third period, but still worked his way to a pin at the 6:14 mark. Brandon Weber worked hard as well. He was challenged by DSU's Sean Elkins, but a four-point near fall in the third gave the elder Weber a 14-4 major. Fellow sophomore Andrew Bartel was also challenged as he moved up to 174, but he showed his might by working his way to a 5-4 win over Jason Zechinni.

Bartel's victory was part of a run in which the Lights won five of the final six matches, on a night when Northern not only honored its three seniors, but also showed why it's so excited about the stretch run of the season.

"Don't take anything away from Dickinson State," Thivierge said. "They came here after a long trip, and they were missing a few of their guys, as were we. And they came in here and really took the fight to us. In some of those matches, we were the ones who got punched in the mouth early. So that Dickinson team is tough as nails. But that's one of the reasons I'm so proud of all of our guys tonight. They just dug deep, the longer matches went, the more they dug their heels in and fought. And coming off not having wrestled since Dec. 20, that was really good to see us do that. Our guys just showed a lot of pride tonight, and they made it a really fun dual."

Now on the road for the remainder of the season, the Lights will head to Missouri next weekend for the Missouri Valley Invitational, where they are the defending champions.

Last Night, A Good Night

Lights 29, Dickinson State 11

125 - Rob Pair, MSU-N dec. AJ Locke, DSU, 8-7; 133 – Gresch Jones, DDSU maj. dec. Brennon Veis, MSU-N, 9-0; 141 - Brandon Weber, MSU-N pinned Torren Lawson, DSU, 6:14; 149 - Travis Koenig, DSU dec. Dylan Veis, MSU-N, 7-2; 157 - Brandon Weber, MSU-N maj. dec. Sean Elkins, DSU, 14-4; 165 - Tommy Cooper, MSU-N pinned Devan Williams, DSU, 1:36; 174 - Andrew Bartel, MSU-N dec. Jason Zechinni, DSU, 5-4; 184 - Lane Oversen, DSU maj. dec. Steeler French, MSU-N, 11-1; 197 - Ben Stroh, MSU-N dec. Jon Solano, DSU, 6-4; HWT - Taylor Kornoely, MSU-N maj. dec. Ethan Goss-Dickie, DSU, 9-0.