Northern wrestlers begin defense of national title with home duals
By Ryan Divish/Havre Daily News Sports Editor/rdivish@havredailynews.com
The Montana State University-Northern wrestling team will begin defense of
its 2003-04 NAIA national title on Friday night when it faces the
The defending champs will follow that up with a dual against, well, a bunch of
former national champs, as Northern will hold its annual alumni dual on
Saturday night.
For Lights' head coach David Ray, it has been business
as usual with practice starting on Sept. 15.
"We have got 32 guys and we've been going hard since September and so far
nobody has quit," Ray said. "I've been extremely impressed with the
attitude and work ethic that they have shown."
To say Ray's preseason conditioning drills are tough,
might be the understatement of the year. It would also be like saying Ray is
sort of intense.
"I just don't see any soft people in the room," he said. "It's
hard to say if we are ahead of where we were last year, because we had some
good seniors that provided a lot of leadership."
Gone are senior national champions Emmett Willson, Kyle Fisher and Caleb Schaeffer. Willson and Fisher are still around, providing knowledge as
assistant coaches, while Schaeffer is an assistant at the newly started
Unfortunately for Ray, none of the 32 wrestlers has
really taken the step forward to be a leader. He is waiting for at least one
person, if not more, to assume the duties.
"There is a lot of responsibility that comes with being a leader,"
Ray said. "It's not always a fun position, but we need to have some."
The likely candidates are defending national champs Stryder
Davis and Anthony Haukenberry, along with returning
All-Americans Chris Smith and David Waters and national tournament qualifiers
Aaron Jensen, Jesse Juarez and Mazi Burke.
Besides the returnees, Ray has brought in several talented newcomers led by
talented heavyweight Chase Gormley, who tips the
scales at the maximum weight of 275 pounds.
"Chase is a monster," Ray said. "He actually has to cut weight
to make sure he's under 275."
Besides Gormley, newcomers Mike McPeak,
Steven Boger, Zach Morgan, Josh Robinson, J.R.
Carter, Brian Luna and Bridger Sacher will be making
their Northern debuts this weekend.
Also wrestling is senior Dustyn Azure, who returns
from knee surgery, sophomore Jason Harrington, redshirts
Dale Seley, Brian Fritchman,
Emory Willson and Dan Shaw.
The
"It's a fun way to wrestle and it makes them more aggressive," Ray
said.
While there a few tough matches in the Calgary dual, the alumni dual will offer
no free matches with eight national champions and six all-Americans returning
to compete
Willson, Fisher, Schaeffer, Matt Campbell (1993),
Mark Lane (2000), Tyson Thivierge (2002) and
four-time champion Turk Lords will all be competing. Recent Northern hall of
fame inductee Chris Faber will compete along with former all-Americans Bobby
Mantle,
"I wouldn't mind coaching that team," Ray joked. "I think we
might be able to win a national title with that squad."
The Northern/Calgary dual will begin at