The Minot State University (MSU) men’s wrestling team honored its six seniors Sunday, then four of them went out and celebrated with a victory on the mats.

Brendan Barnes, Wayne Joint, Cannon Potts, and Jake Swirple each claimed victory on their “Senior Day” for the Beavers, who despite the strong showing by those four fell 27-13 to visiting Northern State in an NSIC dual at the MSU Dome.

The final home match of the season proved to be the final time competing at the MSU Dome for Barnes, Joint, Potts, Swirple, Kale Farrington, and Evan Vieira who were honored before the match began against the Wolves.

And after Northern State (6-3 overall, 5-3 NSIC) started the afternoon with a pair of wins, the Beaver seniors took over as Potts rolled to a 10-3 decision win at 197 pounds over Tyson Lien, then Swirple battled his way to an 8-2 decision win at 285 pounds over Nathan Schauer.

The pair of victories trimmed the team total to 7-6 in the Wolves’ favor, and after a Northern State pin at 125 made it 13-6, the Beavers came battling right back at 133 pounds as Joint fought for a hard-earned 2-0 win by decision over Clay Gates to make the team total 13-9.

Thoughts of a team win on “Senior Day” slipped away over the next three matches, though, as Northern State picked up a pin, a technical fall win, and a win by decision to stretch the lead in the dual to an insurmountable 27-9 advantage before the final match of the day at 165.

A match dominated by Barnes who cruised to a 14-6 major decision win over Izaak Hunsley, the final victory for a MSU senior on “Senior Day.”

While Sunday’s action wrapped up the home slate for MSU (7-8, 2-6), the Beavers will compete in one final regular-season dual at No. 1-ranked St. Cloud State this coming Friday, then get a weekend off to rest and prepare for the NCAA Super Region V Tournament on Saturday, March 1, hosted by Augustana in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.