Lights compete in Wyoming

In their first tournament of the season, the Montana State University-Northern Lights looked very sharp at times on the mat.

MSU-N went to the Northwest Open in Powell, Wyo., and placed six wrestlers overall. The Lights, who were without several key grapplers this weekend, but three Lights picked up the slack, reaching championship matches.

"Overall, I think we still need a lot of work on our match preparation, especially later in the day, and that we need to continue building on our cardio," MSU-N head coach Tyson Thivierge said. "The guys looked a lot better than they did against North Idaho last week. Other guys competed well just coming up a little short."

Anthony Weerheim (149), Jared Miller (174) and Nick King (197) all reached the finals for the Lights on Saturday. Weerheim injury defaulted in his final at 149 pounds, while King and Miller wound up placing second, but overall, all three wrestlers wrestled great on the day according Thivierge.

Three more Lights reached the consolation final Saturday. Max Payne took fourth at 174 pounds, reaching the semis before losing, while Tay Todd went 3-2 at 157. In the consolation final, Todd dropped a tough match to former Chinook star Robert Stroh, who's wrestling for Wyoming.

And at heavyweight, MSU-N's Devin Norland went 2-2 and finished fourth for the Lights, who were without starting heavyweight Rudy Shaffroth. The Lights also were without Evan Hinebauch, Ethan Hinebauch and Chase Dirden this weekend.

Mickey Cheff and Cameron Neiss went 3-2 overall for the Lights in Powell, while like Brandon Leliefeld went 4-2 overall and Ryan Shelstad was also 2-2 for the weekend.

And while Thivierge was pleased with how the first open tournament of the year went for his young team, he was also excited at the fact that in just the second week of the season, the Lights have already qualified four wrestlers for the national tournament.

Northern will return to Powell on Wednesday for a dual with Northwest College.