George Ferguson Column: Northern teams thriving this winter

None of the three Montana State University-Northern winter sports teams are strangers to being nationally ranked. But, this week, something very unique has happened.

With the MSU-Northern wrestling team already in the Top 5 of the NAIA Coaches Poll, the release of this week’s NAIA Women’s Basketball Coaches Poll gave Northern an even bigger boost, as the Skylights moved up another spot and are now the No. 2 team in NAIA Division I.

Yes, I’d say it’s more than impressive for Northern to currently have the second-ranked team in women’s basketball and the fourth-ranked team in wrestling at the same time. In fact, it’s more than impressive, it’s downright awesome.

For the Skylights, it’s their highest ranking ever in the Division I poll, breaking a three-week old record, as the No. 3 spot was the highest the program had ever ascended to when that poll came out last month.

And, to make it three-for-three, the Lights basketball team is also ranked again this week, as MSU-N climbed two spots to No. 23 in the latest men’s poll. It’s actually an impressive feat as well, given Northern wasn’t to be found in the Preseason Coaches Poll, and was picked to finish fifth in the Frontier Conference this season. So, for the Lights to climb this far, given how the polls work in the first place, it’s a job really well done.

So, if you’re really dreading the next two months of winter dragging on, there is a very bright spot, and that’s the three winter sports teams at Northern. They are three of the best of the best in the country, and all three have lots of exciting home games and duals coming up.

In fact, with how good Northern is in basketball and wrestling this year, we don’t even need El Nino. We’ve got the Lights and Skylights instead.

NAIA Women's Coaches Poll

Rn. Prv. Rec. Pts. 1 2 Westmont (Calif.) (8) 12-1 219

2 3 MSU-Northern 12-1 205

3 4 Campbellsville (Ky.) 14-3 203

4 5 Bethel (Tenn.) 10-3 190

5 6 Carroll (Mont.) 12-1 189

6 T10 Our Lady of the Lake) 10-2 187

7 8 Benedictine (Kan.) 12-1 181

8 16 Columbia (Mo.) (1) 14-0 173

T9 12 Shawnee State (Ohio) 14-2 160

T9 T10 MidAmerica Nazarene 9-3 160

11 14 Lyon (Ark.) 11-2 151

12 1 Vanguard (Calif.) 7-3 150

13 7 Freed-Hardeman 9-4 133

14 9 Xavier (La.) 10-5 118

15 13 Oklahoma City 5-4 117

16 19 The Master's (Calif.) 10-2 113

17 18 Langston (Okla.) 6-2 112

18 15 Cumberland (Tenn.) 10-4 105

19 17 John Brown (Ark.) 9-5 95

20 23 Pikeville (Ky.) 14-0 89

21 RV Baker (Kan.) 10-2 73

22 20 Rocky Mountain 10-4 62

23 RV Talladega (Ala.) 11-3 51

24 20 Martin Methodist 11-3 50

25 RV Lindsey Wilson 13-2 46

Others receiving votes: Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) 40; Wiley (Texas) 37; Wayland Baptist (Texas) 37; Great Falls (Mont.) 24; Loyola (La.) 22; Central Methodist (Mo.) 19; Culver-Stockton (Mo.) 3; William Woods (Mo.) 3.

NAIA Men's Coaches Poll

Rn. Prv. Rec. Pts.

1 2 Georgetown (Ky.) (10) 14-0 250

2 1 Pikeville (Ky.) 13-1 238

3 3 Freed-Hardeman 12-2 231

4 5 Columbia (Mo.) 14-1 220

5 6 William Penn (Iowa) 12-1 219

6 8 LSU Alexandria 11-2 203

7 7 Lewis-Clark State 14-1 201

8 9 Dalton State (Ga.) 11-2 195

9 4 Arizona Christian 13-2 194

10 11 Talladega (Ala.) 13-3 182

11 10 Hope International 12-2 175

12 14 Westmont (Calif.) 12-3 144

13 20 Texas Wesleyan 8-3 143

14 T17 Xavier (La.) 12-4 141

15 19 Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) 11-3 132

16 16 Carroll (Mont.) 9-3 119

17 12 Wayland Baptist 10-3 116

18 15 SAGU (Texas) 11-3 106

19 13 MidAmerica Nazarene 9-4 105

20 RV Biola (Calif.) 15-1 100

21 23 Langston (Okla.) 8-3 97

22 NR Central Methodist 9-4 82

23 24 MSU-Northern 12-2 80

24 21 Vanguard (Calif.) 10-2 54

25 RV Tougaloo (Miss.) 7-4 47

Others Receiving Votes: Our Lady of the Lake (Texas) 42; Campbellsville (Ky.) 42; Martin Methodist (Tenn.) 31; Benedictine (Kan.) 27; Park (Mo.) 12; Wiley (Texas) 9; Mid-America Christian (Okla.) 6; Mobile (Ala.) 5; Oklahoma City 4; Montana Western 4; Avila (Mo.) 3.