Lights shine in annual Battle of the Rockies

The NAIA national wrestling tournament is still a long way off. But this weekend kind of felt like it for the Montana State University-Northern Lights.

MSU-N, the No. 2 ranked team in NAIA, was in Great Falls for the Battle of the Rockies Friday-Saturday and, for much of the weekend, the Lights looked like they were in national tournament form.

Northern was especially strong in the dual portion of the event, held Friday at the McLaughlin Center in Great Falls, where the Lights swept three nationally ranked opponents.

Northern destroyed West Region rival Simpson 41-6 in its first dual Friday. The Lights lost just twice, while getting pins or bonus points from Aaron LaFarge (125), Cameron Neiss (141), Ethan Hinebauch (165), Kody Reed (184) and Toby Cheff (197).

Northern followed its first win with a 31-12 victory against Indiana Tech and a 41-6 beating of Dickinson State. Indiana Tech was ranked 11th in the nation, and LaFarge, Neiss, Hunter Azure, Mickey Cheff, Hinebauch, Jared Miller, Reed and Toby Cheff were all victorious. Against the 1th-ranked Blue Hawks, LaFarge, Neiss, Tommy Cooper, Hinebauch and Jorell Jones all won by pin, while Reed won by a technical fall, and Miller and Garrett DeMers earned victories by decision.

“We’re happy,” Lights head coach Tyson Thivierge said following Friday’s action. “We only lost six of 30 matches, but there’s still some areas we need to clean up.

“The last couple of years, we were a tournament team, but now we’ve started a good string of dual wins,” he continued. “We just got to keep our feet on the ground and keep moving forward.”

Northern did move forward in Saturday’s tournament portion of the weekend, held at the CMR Fieldhouse. The Lights advanced seven wrestlers into the semifinal round, coming up with three Battle of the Rockies champions, while placing eight grapplers overall.

Hinebauch earned the title at 165 pounds, pinning arch rival Shaun Lau of UGF in the final. Miller followed right behind with a title at 174 pounds. The red-shirt junior beat McKendree’s Luis Alba 7-5 in the championship match. Toby Cheff made it three-for-three for the Lights as McKendree’s Julian Smith 5-2 in the 197-pound championship match.

Northern also saw five more wrestlers win their final match of the day. LaFarge (125), Neiss (133), Azure (149), Steve Conn (184) and DeMers (197) all placed third for the Lights in Saturday’s tough tournament.

And while Thivierge was happy for the success, he also said his team can do better.

“Sure, we had three champs and five thirds, and that will get you a national championship,” Thivierge said. “But we lost four of our seven semifinal matches, and that’s just not going to cut it for us.”