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Montana State University-Northern's Landon Bailey, right, throws an Eastern Oregon rival to the mat during last Friday's season-opening dual in the Armory Gymnasium. Bailey won the match by technical fall, while the Lights rolled to a 32-9 victory.
MSU-Northern's Tony Evans, back, goes for a throw during Friday night's Cascade Conference dual between the Lights and Eastern Oregon Mounties at the Armory Gymnasium. Evans won his 149-pound match, while the Lights beat the Mounties 32-9.
Matt Weber in action at 133 pounds during Friday night's dual with Eastern Oregon in Havre.
Andrew Bartel in action at 165 pounds during Friday night's dual with Eastern Oregon in Havre.
Brandon Weber on his way to a pin at 157 pounds during Friday night's dual with Eastern Oregon in Havre.
From the first day of practice, expectations have been high inside the Montana State University-Northern wrestling. So even with a dominant performance in their season-opener, head coach Tyson Thivierge wasn't shy about continuing to set the bar high.
On Friday night, in front of a big crowd in the Armory Gymnasium, the third-ranked Lights plastered the Eastern Oregon Mounties, 32-9 in a Cascade Conference duel that pitted Thivierge and the Lights against former Northern All-American and assistant coach Dustyn Azure.
And while Northern, which was picked to win the Cascade this season, got its season off on a high note, Thivierge still saw plenty he wants his team to correct moving forward.
"My expectations are very high for this team," Thivierge said, "and this was the first time we were wrestling somebody other than ourselves, so I saw a lot we have to work on. I saw that we have a long way to go. It was good to come out and get the win. I'm happy about that, and we had some very good performances, especially from our veteran guys. But as a whole, we have a lot we need to work on, a lot we can clean up."
In the first dual of 2018, Northern fell behind 3-0 after EOU's Mhar Caballa, a former Light, stopped ninth-ranked Nick Kunz with a close decision. But the Lights wasted little time in erasing the Mounties' lead.
Junior Landon Bailey, ranked 15th at 133 pounds, came storming out of the gate, built a 6-0 lead with a couple of near falls and wound up earning a technical fall over EOU's Ryan Ninman. Top-ranked Matt Weber followed Bailey with an aggressive 10-5 decision over 12th-ranked Blake McNall, and the Lights were ahead for good.
"Landon came out and was very solid," Thivierge said. "And Matt was Matt; he's so dangerous. So I thought those two matches kind of brought the dual back in balance for us, and we got the momentum rolling from there."
The Lights did take full advantage of the momentum. Tony Evans, making his debut for the Lights, picked up an exciting 8-5 decision at 149 pounds, and second-ranked Brandon Weber followed with Northern's first pin of the season at 157. Top-ranked Andrew Bartel backed up Weber's performance with a controlling 9-2 win at 165 pounds, and the Lights were in front at that point, 20-3.
"I really liked what I saw from Tony Evans," Thivierge said. "This was his first home dual for us, and he came out agressive. He wrestled really well for five minutes, and now he just needs to work on finishing. Brandon was Brandon, you just see how dangerous he is, and Bart (Bartel), he was very solid and very in control. So I thought our veteran guys did a really good job of setting the tone tonight."
Indeed, the Lights also got a fast victory from Isaac Bartel at 197 pounds. Bartel led 4-0 early in the first period, when EOU's Dino May was forced to default with an injury. Jase Stokes also picked up a forfeit at heavyweight for the Lights, while EOU earned close, one-point decisions by former Light Drake Randall at 174, as well as Marco Retano at 184.
And while the final score was a blowout for the Lights in their 2018-19 debut, and Thivierge liked plenty of what he saw, he also said that, the dual gave Northern plenty to work on going forward. And moving forward, MSU-N has a big home dual coming up with arch rival, North Idaho College.
"We have to learn to be more dominant, we have to learn to finish more matches," Thivierge said. "We need to wrestle better on bottom. There's a lot of things we can learn and work on from tonight. Again, I'm happy we won, but I'm also glad we got to see what we need to do a better job of going forward."
The Lights will be back in the Armory Gymnasium this Thursday night when they take on North Idaho. MSU-N is also home to host rival Providence Nov. 14.
Lights 32, Eastern Oregon 9
125 - Mhar Caballa, EOU dec. Nick Kunz, MSU-N 14-7; 133 - Landon Bailey, MSU-N tech. Fall Ryan Ninman, EOU, 16-1; 141 - Matt Weber, MSU-N dec. Blake McNall, EOU, 10-5; 149 - Tony Evans, MSU-N dec. Jared Brant, EOU, 8-5; 157 - Brandon Weber, MSU-N pinned John Leal, EOU, 3:28; 165 - Andrew Bartel, MSU-N dec. Keegan Mulhill, EOU, 9-2; 174 - Drake Randall, EOU dec. Chase Short, MSU-N, 3-2; 184 - Marco Retano, EOU dec. Steeler French, MSU-N, 5-4; 197 - Isaac Bartel, MSU-n inj. Def. Dino May, EOU; HWT - Jase Stokes, MSU-N won by fft.
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