Lights meet Argos for round one on the mat

The college wrestling season is young. But it's already time for the biggest rivalry in NAIA wrestling to take center stage.

Tonight in Great Falls, the Montana State University-Northern Lights and UGF Argos will fire the first salvo in their two-dual series for the 2015-16 season, and as always, it should be a great match.

Northern comes into the dual ranked No. 5 in the NAIA, and fresh off two successful tournaments to open the season. The Argos attended the same tournaments as the Lights did the last two weeks, and they enter tonight's home dual ranked No. 16. UGF also brings two-dual winning streak into tonight's matchup, as they swept the Lights last season, in two very closes meetings.

However, whenever the Lights and Argos hook up on the mat, and wherever they meet, records, rankings and past successes really don't mean a whole lot, and numbers won't have much to do with tonight's dual either.

"We have four returning starters and are looking at bringing home a win," MSU-N head coach Tyson Thivierge said. "We are expecting this to be a tough dual meet. It always is (with UGF)."

"Should be another exciting dual," added UGF head coach Caleb Schaeffer, an MSU-N alumn. "Whenever you wrestle these duals there always seems to be a favorite on paper but that really never comes into play with this rivalry. It seems like there are always a couple of key matchups that can change the tide of the dual every year. I believe those key matchups this year are at 149 and 165. Those two matchups will be fun to watch."

While Schaeffer points to those two matches as key matchups in the dual, all but one weight class will feature at least one nationally ranked wrestler in the match. And it starts with the 125-pound weight class where Northern freshman Quintel Fuchs makes his dual debut against UGF veteran and fifth-ranked Luke Schlosser. The Argos have generally had the upper hand in the lower weights in recent years, while the Lights have dominated the upper weights. But this year's Northern/UGF duals could look different as the Lights have seemed to certainly shore up the lower weight classes with budding young stars.

At 133 pounds, Northern will send out another freshman, Blake Ivie to take on sixth-ranked Argo Clinton Garvin. At 141, yet another MSU-N freshman, Matt Weber will face off against UGF junior Justin Whitman.

And the intensity of the dual only picks up from there. At 140 pounds, 10th-ranked Brandon Weber will have 15th-ranked UGF standout Kyle Leir, while 10th-ranked Tommy Cooper will take on UGF's Arram Price. In the upper weights, Northern is still as stout as ever, but UGF has some talent there, too. At 165 pounds, Northern's Andrew Bartel, making his dual debut, will face 11th-ranked Khaldoon Rashid. Bartel comes into the match ranked 14th. At 174 pounds, MSU-N senior Willie Miller, ranked fifth, is set to battle Francisco Rueda, while Northern's Dace Fisher will square off with ninth-ranked Taylor Vaughn at 184.

Of course, the Lights' biggest guns will go last, and could certainly be the determining factor in tonight's outcome. At 197 pounds, top-ranked Garrett DeMers will square off with UGF's Sam Voigtlander, and at heavyweight, MSU-N senior Toby Cheff, ranked No. 2, is expected to make his season debut against Andreas Geranios.

"Northern is big on bonus points if we can stay away from giving them big points in the upper weights I believe we have a chance to upset them," Schaeffer said. "But if we can't stay off our backs we could be in big trouble."

Of course, the Lights will look for pins and bonus points in tonight's rivalry meeting. As always, emotions will be running high. And while it's still very early in the season, Thivierge said his team has been working very hard to get the dual season off to a good start. And that's exactly what the Lights are hoping today on UGF's home mat tonight.

"We have been putting the time in, getting ready for a competitive dual with UGF," Thivierge said. "They took us out twice last season so we are hoping to kick off our dual season with a bang. The pressure is there, we have put a lot of time in and we are ready to compete."

Tonight's dual between the Lights and Argos will start at 7 inside the McLaughlin Center in Great Falls. The rematch will come Feb. 10 in Havre.