The MSU-Northern Lights wrestling team hosted their annual Alumni Dual on Saturday afternoon in front of an energetic crowd in the Armory Gymnasium.  A total of 18 matches took place, with the Alumni taking 13 to push to a 49-19 final score.  Former Light All-American Chris Nile officiated and also wrestled a match in the event.

The alumni roster featured 11 former All-Americans including 3 NAIA National Champions (Ben Stroh, Brandon Weber, and Issac Bartel).  The matches were abbreviated to three, one-minute periods and overtime was sudden death.  Match results are as follows:

Mike Hipple (2007) won by fall in the first period over Leo Anderson (Helena, MT). 

Brennan Veis (2020) defeated Noah McDermott (Spokane, WA) 3-0. 
Steeler French (2021) defeated Reece White (Madras, OR) 4-3 in a highly competitive match. 

Cade Gubler (Livingston, MT) defeated the alumni's Todd Eldridge (1997) 6-3 in a match that came down to the final seconds.

Landon Bailey (2020) downed Cooper Cook (Columbus, MT) by fall in the third period. 

Dylan Veis (2021) won in the final seconds on a takedown in his match against Gavin McLean (Frenchtown, MT). 

For the Lights, Tanner Cook (Columbus, MT) defeated Rob Pair (2020) in overtime 3-1.

Light Rylin Burns (Colstrip, MT) defeated Ethan Roetman (2022) 5-2.

NaKoda Siegel (Colstrip, MT) defeated Chris Nile (2018) 4-3.

Light Austin Vanek (Cut Bank, MT) downed Max Payne 12-3.

Matt Weber defeated Colin Silverthorn (Tomasket, WA) 13-3.

In one of the most exciting matches of the day, Light Martin Wilkie (Havre, MT) defeated Cameron Neiss (2014) 7-3.

Ethan Hniebauch (2014) won by fall over Zach Valdez (Colstrip, MT) 13-0.

Garrett DeMers (2016) defeated Carl Hanson (Elko, NV) 8-3.

Andrew Bartel (2019) downed Devin Crawford (Helena, MT) by a score of 3-1 in overtime.

The final three matches highlighted former National Champions, as Ben Stroh (2017) defeated Josh Walker (Spanaway, WA) by fall in the first period.

2017 National Champion Brandon Weber defeated Connor Harris (Havre, MT) by a score of 8-3.

2021 National Champion Issac Bartel downed Rylan Moldenhauer (Great Falls, MT) 6-1.

Lights head coach Tyson Thivierge said, "I thought we wrestled well.  One-minute periods are short time situations and we need to learn to score in those short periods.  This was the most matches we have ever had in my 15 years. It was hard not coaching the Alumni, because 16 of the 18 guys wrestled for me.  They taught our guys valuable lessons."

The Lights are back in action October 20 for the annual Maroon and Gold dual.