Northern wrestling ready for NAIA Nationals

Several months of duals, tournaments and hard work comes down to this weekend as the Montana State University-Northern wrestling team will compete in the NAIA Men's Wrestling Championship in Wichita, Kansas. The Lights are a young team, but MSU-N head coach Tyson Thivierge is confident that they are capable of bringing home some hardware this weekend.

"We do have a lot of National tournament experience with this group. We are still building but we expect to make a run," Thivierge said. "We have the horsepower to come home with a trophy. Numbers wise, we probably can't come home with that elusive team title, but we are going to give it our best. Team and individual National Championships is the goal every single season, so these six individuals are focused on pursuing their dream of winning an individual National Championship."

The Lights will send six wrestlers to the tournament this weekend. Martin Wilkie will wrestle for the Lights in the 149-pound weight class. Wilkie is ranked No. 7 in the country and will start the tournament with a match against Tyler Okada from Waldorf.

NaKoda Siegel will wrestle for the Lights in the 174-pound weight class this weekend. Siegel is ranked No. 4 in the country and will start the tournament with a match against Jordan Lomeli from Ottawa. Siegel and Wilkie are some of the best wrestlers for the Lights, so they have a good shot of winning a championship this weekend.

"NaKoda and Martin just need to stay the course. They have been highly focused all season long and they know what they have to do to win it all," Thivierge said. "They have to continue to just be themselves, and things can go well for them. They are true competitors, and they just need to stay grounded."

At 165 pounds, Devin Crawford will compete for the Lights at nationals this weekend. He will start the weekend with a match against No. 16 Joey Hancock from Baker. Rylin Burns will represent the Lights wrestling at 174 pounds this weekend. He will start the weekend with a match against No. 7 Alex Hernandez from Southern Oregon.

At 184 pounds, Austin Vanek will wrestle against No. 7 Sawyer Hobbs from Providence to start the tournament. At 197 pounds, Carl Hansen is ranked No. 11 in the country and has earned a bye to start the tournament. While Wilkie and Siegel will get the attention this weekend, Thivierge believes his other wrestlers heading to nationals can also go on a run.

"We always have faith that anyone we put out there, including this postseason, can be a National Champion," Thivierge said. "Each individual has that opportunity in front of them this week and we've focused on just being ourselves and wrestling with confidence. We fully believe these six guys can do damage and make MSU-Northern proud in Wichita."

Over the course of Friday and Saturday, the Lights will compete against wrestlers from programs such as Grand View (Iowa), Indiana Tech, Southeastern (Florida), Life (Georgia), Morningside (Iowa), Ottawa (Kansas), Campbellsville (Kentucky) and Menlo (California). While the Lights will have many tough matches to end the season, Thivierge looks forward to seeing how his wrestlers do against the best in the country.

"The end of the season is always tough and everyone is vying for the same prize. I'm excited about this tournament, but I'm more excited about the work this team has put in," Thivierge said. "It seems we've been underdogs all season, we've fought for everything we've earned and we are ready to roll. There is no 'next week' or 'next weekend,' we are ready to go out and lay it all on the line. As always, the future is bright for this group and we have great days coming. But for now, we are highly focused on this tournament and competing to be a National Champion."

The 2023 NAIA Men's Wrestling Championship will begin Friday at 10 a.m. at Hartman Arena in Wichita, Kansas.