Lights finish 2019 with three NAIA All-Americans

For the second straight NAIA national tournament, the Montana State University-Northern Lights sent a pair of their wrestlers to the mat with a chance to win a national championship. But, for the second straight year, two Northern grapplers lost excruciatingly close matches.

Northern senior Brandon Weber saw his brilliant MSU-N career come to an end Saturday night in Des Moines, Iowa with a second straight final's loss to Life's Nosomy Pozo. In a rematch of the 2018 final, Pozo scored a takedown with 11 seconds left to beat Weber 6-5 in the 157-pound title match. It was Weber's third straight trip to the championship match, a title he won in 2017.

Meanwhile, sophomore Isaac Bartel also came up just short of a title Saturday night. Bartel squared off against two-time defending champion Evan Hansen of Grand View in the 197-pound final, where Hansen prevailed with a 6-4 decision. Both wrestlers hail from the state of Iowa.

Northern's last win in the tournament came Saturday afternoon by senior Andrew Bartel. After suffering a tough loss in the semifinals, Bartel rebounded to place third, including beating Eastern Oregon arch rival Drake Randall for the second time in the tournament. Bartel edged Randall in the consolation final to finish third and earn All-American honors for the second straight season.

In the team title race, Grand View obliterated the field for the Vikings eighth straight national title while the Lights finished with 50.5 points which put them in 10th place.

“It was a phenomonal season,” he said. “It may seem like we fizzled at the end, but, this team overcame so much this year. We wrestled in a super tough conference, we had some recruits who left us, and we got bit by the injury bug, but through it all, this team never got rattled, nothing phased them. They kept their focus and they worked hard, they stuck together, they were a family, and they were a really excpetional team and I’m super proud of.