DES MOINES, Iowa — The Weber family will once again wrestle for championships.
Matthew and Brandon Weber each advanced to the NAIA national championship matches on Saturday morning — Matt in the 141-pound match, Brandon at 157.
Brandon Weber, a redshirt junior, is the defending 157-pound champion and earned the 2017 outstanding wrestler award. He faces top-ranked Nosomy Pozo of Life (Georgia) in the finale. Weber advanced to the championship match with a 12-2 major decision in the semifinals.
Matt Weber, a junior, earned a 7-5 decision over No. 1 Josh Wenger of Grand View (Iowa) in the semifinals. Weber will meet No. 3 Tyler Fraley of Williams Baptist (Arkansas) in the 141-pound championship.
“Matt defeated the returning champion in the semifinals, which was huge,” said Northern wrestling coach Tyson Thivierge. “Brandon is rolling. Our guys are 8-0 (Saturday) and doing great.”
The Webers’ former Forsyth teammate Chris Nile (174 pounds) advanced to the consolation semifinals and has all-American status locked up.
Thivierge’s MSU-Northern program also had brothers Andrew and Isaac Bartel alive in the consolation round on Saturday morning. Andrew advanced to the consolation semifinals in the 165-pound bracket, while Isaac did the same at 197 pounds.
Caleb Schaeffer and the University of Providence had title hopes of their own with 174-pound Adrian Lyons-Lopez. The multiple-time Cascade Conference wrestler of the week won a hard-fought 3-2 decision against Justin Brown of Campbellsville (Kentucky) in the semifinals. Lyons-Lopez, the No. 10 seed, meets top-ranked Lucas Lovvorn of Baker (Kansas) in the championship match.
Argo 157-pound wrestler Casey Dobson of Great Falls will leave the NAIA championships as an all-American. Dobson will wrestle in the consolation semifinals at 157 pounds and seeks a third-place finish.
The championship finals are set to being at 6 p.m. (MT) Saturday.
