Streaking Lights ready to punch NAIA tickets

This weekend is nothing new to the Montana State University-Northern wrestling team. It's the weekend the Lights have trained for all year. For each Northern wrestler, it the weekend in which they get their chance to punch their tickets to the NAIA national tournament.

However, there's a lot new about how the Lights - and the rest of the teams in what used to be the NAIA's West Region - will go about doing that, including the name of the event. This past offseason, the NAIA moved from regionals to conferences, so, the Lights are off to what is now the Cascade Conference Tournament, which takes place Saturday in Ashland, Oregon, home of the Southern Oregon Raiders.

What's also new is the amount of spots up for grabs this weekend at each weight class. The NAIA has drastically changed that procedure as well. In recent years, four spots from each weight class in each regional were allotted for the national tourney. Not so anymore. Now, each weight class at this weekend's Cascade tourney will send how ever many wrestlers hold national rankings in that weight class. For example, there are five wrestlers who hold national rankings from the Cascade at 125 pounds, so five spots to nationals will be on the line at 125 Saturday in Ashland. Conversely, only three wrestlers in the Cascade are ranked at 141 pounds, so only the top three at 133 in the Cascade will automatically make it to nationals. And that's how it will work for each weight class. There will still be a certain amount of wildcards from each conference, as well, but the road to nationals for some weights now gets infinitely harder than others.

And how it will all play out, no one, including longtime Northern head coach Tyson Thivierge, really knows yet.

"It's the first time we've done this," Thivierge said. "So we'll see how it goes. I just know our guys are all going down there with the same goal, and that's to compete as hard as we can, wrestle as well as we can and get as many guys to nationals as we can."

The Lights have plenty of guys with strong opportunities to reach next month's national tournament, but the Cascade is by far the toughest region, too. Northern comes into the tournament ranked 13th in the NAIA, but also fresh off wins over Embry-Riddle and Providence. And while the Lights are wrestling as well as anyone in the country right now, the Cascade is full of Top 20 NAIA teams. Providence and Menlo are ranked sixth and seventh, respectively, while Southern Oregon is 10th and Embry-Riddle is 18th. Eastern Oregon is ranked just outside the Top 20, as is Warner-Pacific, two more teams the Lights beat in duals this season.

Individually, the tournament is loaded with top-flight grapplers as well, but the Lights are certainly a part of that category, too.

At 125 pounds, Northern will wrestle both Nick Kunz and Rob Pair. Kunz has catapulted himself to No. 13 in the NAIA and is the No. 2 seed in the Cascade. Mikel Perales of Menlo, and EOU's Mhar Caballa are also considered strong contenders at 125. At 133 pounds, Northern has been led all season by sophomore Landon Bailey, who is on a hot streak right now. The bracket is tough with Bailey seeded fifth, while Menlo's Ian Morken and Providence's Isaac Wilson the top two seeds.

At 141, Matt Weber looks to punch his ticket to his third straight national tourney. The former NAIA All-American is also wrestling at a high level right now, holding the No. 5 ranking. Weber is ranked right behind SOU rival Devin Poppen, who he beat in Havre back in January. Those two are likely on a collision course again this weekend. The Lights will be open at 149 pounds however, as Dylan Veis injured an ankle last week against Providence, and won't be able to go this weekend.

Northern is hoping to also do plenty of damage in the upper weights. At 157 pounds, defending national champion Brandon Weber is returning to form after a mid-season injury, and while he's only the No. 4 seed this week, he'll still be looked at as a favorite in a bracket that is loaded with the likes of EOU's Drake Randall, SOU's Hunter Hodges and Providence's Casey Dobson. At 165, junior Andrew Bartel will be one of the favorites, along with top-ranked Blake Cooper of Warner-Pacific, while Northern will send out both Chris Nile and Chase Short in a 174-pound bracket that is stopped by UP's Adrian Lyons-Lopez, who Nile just beat a week ago. Nile was also named NAIA Wrestler of the Week this week.

Rounding out the MSU-N lineup this week is Steeler French and Rylan Moldenhauer at 184 pounds, and freshman Isaac Bartel at 197. Bartel has had a huge first year with the Lights, and he has his sights set on another matchup with SOU's Tanner Fischer this weekend in Oregon.

The Lights are also gunning for a team title in the first-ever Cascade Conference Tournament, in a race that is wide open because there are so many good teams, but no overwhelming favorite. But the ultimate goal for the lights, and for everyone else, is to win the national championship, and that means qualifying as many wrestlers as possible this weekend in Ashland.

The 2018 Cascade Conference Tournament runs all day Saturday in Ashland, Oregon. The NAIA national tournament is set for March 2-3 in Des Moines, Iowa.