Tyson Thivierge, Head Coach, 18th year
After 17 years at the helm for the Lights wrestling program, Coach Thivierge has produced a total of 55 NAIA All-Americans, 6 Individual National Champions, 19 National Finalists, 32 NAIA Academic All-Americans and has placed his teams in the Top 10 of the NAIA National Championships a total of 11 times. His teams have won the NAIA Sportsmanship Award a total of 6 times and they have placed in the Top 10 of the NWCA All-Academic Teams for multiple seasons (2025-6th, 2024-4th, 2022-5th, 2021-6th, 2020-2nd, 2019-1st and 2018-3rd).
In the 2024-25 wrestling season, the Lights posted a dual meet record of 4 wins and 10 losses. At the Cascade Conference Championships, the Lights qualified 8 wrestlers to the NAIA National Championships. Those earning qualifying spots were Kolten Powers (125), Justin Windauer (157), Travis Waldner (165), Orion Thivierge (165), Devin Crawford (174), Rylin Burns (184), Austin Vanek (197) and Shane Mattson (285).
At the 2025 NAIA National Championships, the 8 qualifying Lights battled hard, but only came home with one All-American performance for the second consecutive year from Rylin Burns at 184 by placing 7th. Rylin Burns’ performance extended MSU-Northern’s streak of having at least one All-American at the NAIA National Championships for 44 consecutive years.
Also at the 2025 National Championships, the NAIA Scholar All-Americans were honored for their performance in the classroom. The Lights Wrestling team had 7 Academic Daktronics Scholar All-Americans! Those Scholar All-Americans include Cade Gubler, Cael White, Cale Ibach, Justin Windauer, Orion Thivierge, Ryan Graves and Rylin Burns. Cade Gubler earned his second consecutive honor and Rylin Burns earned his third consecutive Daktronics Scholar-Athlete award.
Before coming back to MSU-Northern, Thivierge spent some years moving around the country from Tennessee, Washington and Nevada. In Tennessee, Thivierge served as an assistant coach at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga before moving to Clarkston, WA where he assisted his high school coach for two seasons. In 2006 Coach Thivierge got his first crack at a Head Coaching position at Carson High School, in Carson City, NV. Thivierge served as Head Coach for two seasons before he was hired at his alma mater MSU-Northern.
Coach Thivierge was one of many talented student-athletes under MSUN Hall of Fame and 4x NAIA National Champion Coach David Ray. Thivierge was the 2nd ever 4-time NAIA All-American (3rd, 2nd, 3rd, 1st) for MSU-Northern, with his career being capped off in 2002 with an NAIA National Championship of his own at 184lbs, as well as being named the Outstanding Wrestler of the 2002 NAIA National Championships. During his senior season, he placed 4th in the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Open and 2nd at the prestigious Midlands Championships. Coach Thivierge was part of two National Championship teams in 1999 and 2000 and graduated from MSU-Northern in 2003 with a Bachelor’s degree in Health and Physical Education. In 2018 Coach Thivierge was inducted to the MSUN Athletic Hall of Fame.
Coach Thivierge is the proud father of Northern’s two biggest fans Orion and Marlee, as well as his supportive and loving wife Stephanie, who is also a 2003 MSU-Northern graduate.
