Western, Great Falls fall victim to Northwest

Fresh off a fourth-place finish at the National Duals, the seventh-ranked Northwest College wrestling team returned to the mat last Thursday and Friday for a pair of home duals. The Trappers clobbered in-state foe Western Wyoming by a 40-6 final count before edging the University of Great Falls by a 25-21 margin.

“I was pleased to beat Western,” said Trapper head coach Jim Zeigler, who earlier this year had to suffer a rare defeat at the hands of the Mustangs after a series of injuries forced Northwest to juggle its lineup.

This time around, it was a full-strength Trapper team that stepped onto the mats. The difference was made clear over the course of the 10 matches, but not before the Mustangs opened the dual with a 14-8 win over Kamron Day at the 125-pound match. The loss was a shocker as Day had been the only member of the Trappers’ lineup to go undefeated in three matches at the National Duals the previous week.

“That’s a match that could really hurt him,” Zeigler said of Day’s loss. “Our region, at 125 pounds, is the strongest in the nation. We could have four of the eight All Americans come out of it and the other guys aren’t slouches. Going into the night, Kamron had a criteria advantage in terms of regional seeding over everyone. That loss could drop him to a 4 or 5 seed now, which is a pretty huge difference.”

The Trappers wasted little time in overcoming the loss, however. Justin Gardner recovered the points with an 8-0 major decision shutout. Colton Thornton and Nathaniel Garcia followed with back-to-back second period wins by fall to push the Trappers to a 16-3 lead entering the middle weights.

Jaksen Cotterell scored a 14-5 major decision, the first of three consecutive majors registered by Northwest. Bernie Dupuy added a 13-4 win at 165 and Keithen Cast followed tih a 16-5 victory.

Miles Nixon pressed his opponent flat midway through the second period, making Northwest’s lead 34-3. Western stopped the avalanche of team points with a 13-9 win over Ben Price at 197, but Sean Sullivan needed just 62 seconds to end the heavyweight match by fall to wrap up a lopsided night of action on the mats for the Trappers.

On Friday, Northwest again got off to a slow start as Brandon Matlock was a late first-period fall victim to begin the night for the Trappers. Gardner followed with a 5-2 victory and Thornton’s first-period win by fall elevated the Trappers into the dual lead.

Garcia added to the point count with a tense back-and-forth 11-10 victory in his match. Great Falls countered with a 10-3 win over Cotterell at 157 to pull within 12-9 on the scoreboard, but Dupuy turned in another solid performance with a 12-2 major decision win at 165.

“I thought Bernie was the most outstanding wrestler for us in both duals,” said Zeigler. “He’s explosive on the mat and everything he does, he’s doing with confidence right now. There’s an intent to what he does. He just kind of says ‘here I come, stop me if you can,’ and I love that he’s wrestling with a lot of power.”

The scariest moment of the night for Northwest came after Cast received a forfeit victory at 174 pounds. The 2011 national runner-up then took the mat for an exhibition match, but crumpled to the floor early in the second period clutching a knee.

“He went into the doctor today (Monday) and it was just a little tweak to his knee,” Zeigler said. “We’ll get him back in action, and we’re thankful for that. It’s just something that he’s going to have to handle mentally. He puts a lot of pressure on himself.”

The dual concluded with Miles Nixon losing on a first-period fall before Ben Price guaranteed the Trappers’ victory with a 5-3 decision win at 197. That enabled Zeigler to hold Sullivan off the mat as the Trappers chose to award a forfeit win to former NWC wrestler Sears Tiernan, now a member of the UGF squad.

“Sean has been battling the flu or some sort of illness,” Zeigler said. “He got us a nice pin on Thursday, but there wasn’t a need to send him back out on Friday with the outcome already decided.”

The Trappers return to the mats on Wednesday for a quick turnaround dual at Great Falls. The team will wrestle at Montana State-Northern on Thursday for its final action before the Jan. 27-28 Apodaca Duals in Powell.