Either way, Lights win in Maroon/Gold Dual

The start of the regular season is still two weeks away. But, in many ways, the talented Montana State University-Northern wrestling team looked like they were in mid-season form Wednesday night.

Northern held its annual Maroon/Gold Dual Wednesday inside the Armory Gymnasium, and while the Maroon squad came away with the 24-15 win, MSU-N head coach Tyson Thivierge was pleased with what he saw from both sides.

"I thought it went really well," Thivierge said. "Obviously, when we're wrestling ourselves, it's a little hard to judge. But I saw us wrestling in the center of the mat, and not backing out to the edge. I thought we showed massive improvement in building our periods. I was really pleased with our third periods tonight. And they all wrestled hard. Sure, there's things to work on. It's early. But I was very happy with the way we wrestled tonight."

Thivierge officiated the dual, so he got an up-close look at his grapplers throughout the night.

The dual opened with senior Rob Pair scoring a 10-2 major decision over Caleb Frank at 125 pounds, while Landon Bailey edged teammate Nick Kunz 6-2 in a 133-pound bout between two of Northern's returning leaders. Bailey's win gave the Maroon team a quick 7-0 lead, but Northern newcomer Clayton Currier came right back to beat veteran Dylan Veis, 5-1 at 133 pounds. Currier is a former four-time state champion from Colstrip, who transferred to MSU-N from NCAA Division I Campbell University.

And while Currier is a talented newcomer to the MSU-N lineup, throughout the night, Northern's veteran returners would make the most noise.

Senior Tony Evans dominated former Blue Pony Lane Paulson at 149 pounds, scoring a 15-4 major decision, while Chase Short thumped freshman Carl Hansen in an 18-6 major decision at 174 pounds. In the match everyone wanted to see, another veteran, Isaac Bartel, picked up a technical fall over Steeler French in a 197-pound exhibition match. French normally mans the 184-pound spot for the Lights, and Bartel, a two-time NAIA All-American, was just too much in a 16-0 win. Rylan Moldenhauer also beat Xavier Moran 6-1 at heavyweight to give the gold team the last three wins of the evening.

In other matches, red-shirt freshman Brock Bushfield pinned freshman Caden Hilliard in the first period for another win for the Maroon, while Devin Crawford came back to beat Trey Meyer 4-3 in an exciting match at 165 pounds. Ethan Roetman also started the strong of wins for the Gold, with a 11-3 win over Cody Golding at 184.

And while the Maroon team had bragging rights for the night, that mattered little to Thivierge. Instead, he was looking to see his wrestlers improve, and Northern's season-opener, the Cowboy Invitational Nov. 2 in Laramie, Wyoming, draws closer.

"I liked a lot of things that I saw out of these guys tonight," he said. "We also have a lot to work on. We can use this dual to get back in the room and work on a lot of different things. But I like what I saw. I thought we wrestled well tonight."