The MSU-Northern wrestling squad finally had competition for the first time since December when last week, they faced off with Southern Oregon at home and followed that up with four placers at the Tyler Plummer Classic in Dickinson, ND. New Media Broadcasters caught up with head coach Tyson Thivierge and he broke down how he saw his “new” team.
“Things didn’t go as bad as I thought they would on Friday night against Southern Oregon,” Thivierge said. “We were expecting to see quite a bit of ring rust. I thought we performed pretty well.”
“Obviously, we don’t like losing, especially at home on Senior Night, but overall, they got good grades from us coaches,” Thivierge continued. “It’s been over six weeks since we had a weigh in and been on the mat. It was really nice to see those guys competing hard.”
Turning their attention to the next set of matches, the team will travel to Arizona to face three perennial opponents in Arizona Christian, Vanguard University (California), and Embry-Riddle. Coach Thivierge poked fun at the team’s most recent airplane travel debacle and said he is only focused at the moment on the first dual, which will take place on Friday night.
“Our expectation, knock on wood here that this plane takes off, (is that) we expect to be dominant,” Thivierge said. “I don’t think our expectations are ever going to change. (We need to) pull out dual meet victories and come home to get ready for Providence.”
“Right now, the task at hand is Friday night against Arizona Christian,” Thivierge continued. “We’re looking to go down there and compete to the best of our abilities.”
“We’re healthy, finally,” Thivierge said. “Getting guys healthy for the last run here (and) polish off some of that rust. We’ll just continue to grind it out and see where it goes from here.”
Stay tuned to New Media Broadcasters all weekend for the latest MSU-N wrestling results from two days of competition in the desert.
