HAVRE, Mont. – For the first time since the program's first year, Argo wrestling wasn't ranked in NAIA Preseason Coaches' Poll to start the 2016-17 season, receiving votes but not cracking the top 20. UGF made a statement that they should ranked in the team's first dual of the season, defeating (4) Montana State University – Northern 23-13.
 
The two team's faced twice in 2015-16 with Northern winning both times. The first was a 19-18 battles, while the second, which was also UGF's last dual of the season, was a blowout victory for the Lights, 37-6. This time it was the Argos who came away with a resounding win with a lineup that featured 4 freshmen.
 
"It was absolutely huge," UGF Head Coach Caleb Schaeffer said. "We're a young team and people don't know what to expect from us. To get a victory like this early in the season with these young guys is a big deal."
 
It was a freshman who started off the night in impressive fashion for the Argos, with Alaska native Isaac Wilson earning 5 points with a 19-3 Technical Fall victory at 125. Wilson replaces graduated All-American Luke Schlosser as the top dog in the lightest weight class for UGF.
 
Two straight minor decision victories, a 6-1 win for junior Clinton Garvin and an 11-5 win by senior Justin Whitman, put Great Falls up 11-0 after the first three matches. Northern closed that to gap to 11-5 with two minor decision wins, one of which featured freshman Casey Dobson hanging tough with (10) Drake Randall in a 5-2 loss at 149.
 
Next up was the headliner; UGF's Khaldoon Rashid, ranked 7th in the NAIA at 165, against MSUN's Andrew Bartel, ranked 6th in the NAIA. Rashid lost twice to Bartel in 2015-16, and didn't have it easy this time around, but pulled out a 7-6 decision to steal the momentum for UGF.
 
That momentum led to another technical fall victory from an Argo freshman, this time a 23-8 win at 174 from Randy Keesler.
 
Keesler's win put UGF up 19-6, but with the last two weight classes being two of the strongest for Northern, gaining points in the 184 match was still needed to clinch a win. Senior Sam Voigtlaender took care of that with ease, earning 4 points with an 11-3 major decision.
 
A 23-6 lead put the match out of reach for Northern, and despite losing the final two matches, the Argos still ended up winning by 10 points.
 
One of the major reasons for UGF's margin of victory, was the team's ability to win multiple matches by more than 3 points, while only giving up one total bonus point, something they struggled with last year."
 
"The reason we were losing duals last year was because we gave up a lot of bonus points," Schaeffer said. "We didn't do that tonight. We lost 4 of 10 matches, but we only gave up bonus points in one of those."
 
Not only did Dobson keep the Lights from extra points in his match against Randall at 149, but so did freshman John Hensley who wrestled Ben Stroh, who was voted as the third best wrestler in the country at 184 in the preseason. While Stroh was wrestling at 197 against Hensley, the freshman still put in an outstanding performance, coming one point away from a scoreless stalemate, losing a 1-0 decision to the multiple time national qualifier.
 
The Argos will hope to keep the strong start going, traveling back home for another dual just 24 hours later, facing Eastern Oregon University on Thursday, November 10 at 7 p.m.