Northern wrestling competes hard against Division I Iowa State

On Sunday afternoon in Belgrade, the Montana State University-Northern wrestling team faced its toughest challenge yet this season in Iowa State. The Cyclones are a Division I program and are ranked 11th in the country. When the Lights and Cyclones faced off in their dual on Sunday, the Cyclones demonstrated their pedigree as a program with a 49-0 win in the dual. While the final score might not indicate it, the Lights wrestled hard and nearly won some matches against a top-tier program.

"I thought our guys competed," MSU-N head coach Tyson Thivierge said. "We went out there and they did what we expected. They weren't scared and they competed. Matches just slipped away."

The dual started with a match between ISU wrestler Caleb Fuessley and MSU-N wrestler Kaleb Frank who wrestled in the 125-pound weight class. Frank lasted for a while, but Fuessley eventually won by pin 6:16 into the match against Frank. With the win, the Cyclones took a 6-0 lead in the dual.

At 133 pounds, Northern's Nick Kunz competed hard against Corey Cabanban but Cabanban pulled out a 2-1 win for the decision. The win extended the lead to 9-0 in the dual. At 141 pounds, ISU wrestler Charlie Klepps won by forfeit to extend the lead to 15-0 in the dual.

At 149 pounds, ISU wrestler and Belgrade native Jarrett Degen won by pin 2:35 into the match against Northern's Colin Silverthorn. Northern's Connor Harris then faced ISU wrestler Andrew Huddleston as they wrestled at 157 pounds. Harris competed hard against Huddleston through the match and made it to the third period only trailing a few points. But Huddleston was able to pin Harris in the third and give the Cyclones a 27-0 lead halfway through the dual.

Northern's Chase Short went the distance in his match at 165 pounds against ISU wrestler Austin Kraisser but Kraisser pulled out a 10-4 win for a decision to extend the lead to 30-0 in the dual. At 174 pounds, NaKoda Siegel gave the Lights an opportunity when he battled ISU's Carter Schmidt through both regulation and overtime. But riding time gave Schmidt the tiebreaker for the 2-1 win in the match.

Carl Hansen tried to pick up a win for the Lights when he wrestled at 184 pounds against Julien Broderson. But Broderson picked up another win for the Cyclones with a pin 4:26 into the match. At 197 pounds, ISU's Yonger Bastida Pomares won, 13-5, for a major decision over Northern's Isaac Bartel. In the final match of the dual, ISU's Sam Schuyler and Northern's Rylan Moldenhauer faced off at 285 pounds. Schuyler won by pin 55 seconds into the match to defeat Moldenhauer and end the night with a victory.

As the Lights move forward with the season, they hope to take many lessons from this dual. Thivierge hopes for a repeat of when they faced Iowa University in a dual several years ago. The Lights did not win any matches against the Hawkeyes but they learned from the experience and went on to win their conference and finish second in nationals. Thivierge believes there will be plenty to learn from this dual that will help the Lights reach their goals.

"There's a lot of lessons to be learned. Explosive offense, constant pressure, hard riding, not giving up any escapes," Thivierge said. "By no means are we going to hang our heads about this dual. There's stuff that we're going to take from it and move forward. We wrestled top-tier kids and there were four matches that were super competitive so I feel good about the way we wrestled."

The Lights will next wrestle in the Missouri Valley Invitational in Marshall, Missouri this weekend.

Iowa State 49, MSU-N 0

125 - Caleb Fuessly, ISU, pinned Kaleb Frank, 6:16; 133 - Coby Cabanban, ISU, dec. Nick Kunz, 2-1; 141 - Charlie Klepps, ISU, won by FFT; 149 - Jarrett Degen, ISU, pinned Colin Silverthron, 2:35; 157 - Andrew Huddleston, ISU, pinned Connor Harris, 6:28; 165 - Austin Kraisser, ISU, dec. Chase Short, 10-4; 174 - Carter Schmidt, ISU, win by tiebreaker over NaKoda Siegel, 2-1; 184 - Julien Broderson, ISU, pinned Carl Hansen, 4:26; 197 - Younger Bastida Pomares, ISU, md. Isaac Bartel, 13-5; 285 - Sam Schuyler, ISU, pinned Rylan Moldenhauer, 0:55.