MSU-Northern Wrestling Update
12/06/04
The Northern Wrestling Team picked it up and rebounded from a lost to Dickinson State on December 2nd in Prescott, AZ. Northern ranked #7 had duals
against the #3 and #5 teams. In the dual against #3 Dana College Northern
won 6 matches winning the dual 25-16, the big matches here were Dale Seley at 165 defeating #2 ranked Leister Bowling 5-3,
Leister placed third at last year’s NAIA National tournament. At 197 Mazi Burke pinned Blair Alderman, a 2X NJCAA A.A. at North Idaho College.
It was an
exciting dual with Dana winning the 125 pound match and Northern responding
when Chris Smith defeated #3 ranked Brian Tisutima at
133.
In the next
dual with host Embry-Riddle Northern split with each team winning 5 matches but
winning the dual by a score of 23-21. The dual was even more exciting
than the Dana Dual as each team went back and forth. Mazi
Burke’s pin at 197 secured Northern’s victory.
Following
the duals the team traveled 3 ½ hours to Las Vegas on Thursday Night and only entered
five wrestlers in the Tournament. Smith and Waters were injured, only one
wrestler from each team is allowed to enter a weight class leaving Fritchman and Jensen watching from the stands and Haukenberry did all the filming. With
five Northern finished in 25th place and had one
placer. Stryder Davis wrestled very well
defeating the #2 seed from Fresno State the first round 8-2, the second round Stryder defeated Matt Hill of Edinboro
6-3, defeated Keegan Mueller of Ohio State 3-0 and in the Semi-finals defeated
B.J. Wright of Nebraska 3-2. In the finals Stryder
wrestled Ryan Bertin of Michigan losing 9-0, he looked intimidated
knowing Bertin had won a Division I National Title
and placed third once. I feel he will compete better next time he
wrestles Bertin if they meet at the Midlands.
Northern’s
next competition is this Thursday at 7 pm in Havre against the Trappers of
Northwest College, the defending NJCAA National Champions.