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National
champs! By George
Ferguson/Havre Daily News Sports/gferguson@havredailynews.com GREAT FALLS - Saturday
night marked the final time Montana State University-Northern will host the
NAIA national wrestling tournament in Great Falls for the foreseeable future.
And the Lights weren't about to let the show head out of town without
capturing a national championship. The team gave head coach
David Ray his fourth national championship and Northern its sixth title
overall by placing six wrestlers in the finals on Saturday night and
capturing an unprecedented five individual national championships at
Swarthout Fieldhouse on the campus of Great Falls High School. "This is very
special for our team and for Northern, as well all of the fans and students
in Havre," Ray said. "It takes a lot to put an event like this on,
and the last two years we had chances to win it and it didn't happen. So we
are really happy that we got this one and it is really nice to win it in
front of our fans." MSU-Northern finished
the tournament with 169.5 team points. Menlo College of California was second
with 133.5 points, and defending national champion Missouri Valley College
was third with 116. Missouri Valley was expected to compete for the team
title, but its chances were dashed Friday night when top-ranked Tyson Biddle
was disqualified from competition at 141 pounds for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Missouri Valley was forced to forfeit all of Biddle's points and carry on
without the defending champion. When the tournament
concluded, Emmett Willson, who continued his undefeated streak at 197 pounds
this year, was named NAIA wrestler of the year and the tournament's most outstanding
wrestler. Ray was named NAIA coach of the year. The 2004 national
championship was the fourth during Ray's tenure at Northern. The Lights won
three consecutive national titles from 1998 to 2000. They also captured
titles in 1991 and 1992. The Lights finished
second when the national tournament came to Great Falls in 2002. Last season,
Northern finished third. After a very successful
three-year run in Montana, the tournament is moving to Iowa. "This is just as
special as all the others and it is really nice to win it here in
Montana," Ray said. "It is also nice because we had some kids do
some great things this weekend. We had four kids win their first national
championships and that is pretty special. There are a lot of kids on this
team that had never won a team title at any level before, so it was nice to
get this one for them." Despite the wide margin
of victory, it wasn't easy, he said. "We had some ups
and downs in this tournament," Ray said. "There are a couple of
guys that should have been All-American this year and for whatever reason it
didn't happen. There were also some great teams here and this is a tough
tournament to win." When Saturday morning's
semifinal round began, the Lights had a half-point lead and were in a
dogfight with Menlo. But the Lights began to distance themselves from the
pack by advancing six wrestlers to the finals and placing two others in
consolation rounds. Freshman David Waters finished eighth at 174 pounds and
Jesse Juarez managed to recover from a semifinal loss to finish fifth. When the finals round
began, Northern had all but locked up the team title. The magical night began
at 133 pounds where senior Caleb Schaeffer captured his first individual
title by defeating freshman teammate Chris Smith 7-5. At 149 pounds, sophomore
Anthony Haukenberry thrilled the crowd of more than 3,000 by pulling off a
dramatic 11-9 win over Danny Castillo of Menlo. Haukenberry was down late in
the match when he pulled off a flurry of points to overtake Castillo. In a
span of just 10 seconds, Haukenberry took Castillo down and got a two-point
near fall while Castillo was trying to get out of bounds to pull off the win. Although the night may
have belonged to the Lights' seniors, Ray said Haukenberry and Smith were
huge reasons why the team was able to capture the national championship. "We had some young
guys really help carry the load this weekend," Ray said. "Chris
Smith wrestled a tremendous tournament and he got us a lot of points. He won
some really tight matches and he just came up big. And Haukenberry really
wrestled smart. He wrestled like a veteran, and we couldn't of done it
without those guys." Following Haukenberry's
match, the Lights' roll continued with junior Stryder Davis capturing the
157-pound title by earning a hard-fought 7-5 decision over Rocky Vercher of
Lindenwood University. Davis, who transferred this season from North Idaho
Junior College, capped off a tremendous first season in NAIA with his
first-ever individual championship at any level. "Stryder wrestled
really well all year for us," Ray said. "It shows a lot about what
kind of a wrestler he is to come in here his first time and win this
tournament." Northern finished off
the night with a pair of highly anticipated titles at 184 and 197 pounds.
Havre native Kyle Fisher, wrestling the final match of his career, gutted out
an 11-9 win over David O'Brien of Southern Oregon to finally capture the
national title he had wanted for so long. "It couldn't
possibly get any better than this," Fisher said. "I was second two years
in a row, so to win this one in front of your hometown fans and to win the
team title, it is just a perfect ending for me." The capacity crowd
witnessed history in the making in the 197-pound title match when
MSU-Northern senior Willson capped off a perfect season with a 21-6
dismantling of Niko Koliastasis of Bacone College. The championship was
Willson's third in a row and it marks the end of one of the most prolific
careers in NAIA history. "What can you say
about Emmett Willson that hasn't already been said?" Ray said. "He
only lost 16 matches in his entire career and the run he had this year was
very remarkable. He is a very special wrestler. To go undefeated this season
against the competition he faced is just amazing, and I am really proud of
him and very happy for him." Said Willson: "My
goal was to go undefeated last season and to win a team title. That didn't
happen, and this year the coaches just really pushed me hard to get it done.
I have to give a huge amount of credit to the coaching staff for a lot of my
success. This was a great way to finish off my career." The tournament will move
to Sioux City, Iowa, in 2005. While Ray has enjoyed the last three years in
Great Falls, he said he is looking forward to getting back to just being a
coach. "It takes a lot of
work to put something like this on," he said. "None of this could
have happened without Walt Currie and the people around him. We owe a huge
thanks to Walt and everyone who worked hard to put this on the last three
years. "We are really
proud to win the national championship in Great Falls this year, and I am
really proud of all of our kids," Ray added. "This was a great way
to end the tournament being held in Montana." |
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