It’s been eight years since Northwestern was truly a title contender in wrestling.

The programs golden years, which included league and district titles in 2007 and 2008, along with three straight district runner-up finishes before that, seemed to end abruptly.

The Tigers made two more district team tournament appearances in 2009 and 2010, but didn’t get past the quarterfinals. After that came four straight losing seasons without a district tournament appearance.

But beginning three years ago, when this year’s group of seniors were just freshmen, signs of improvement were there. Last year they led the team to a league tournament appearance and a run in the district team tournament.

This season they took it a step further by earning second place at district duals and Northwestern’s first state tournament appearance since 2008.

“The guys worked hard,” said Northwestern head coach Jim Moll, referring to some of the seniors that have been with the program for four years. “Whitey [Jarett White], Quentin [Bernhard], David VanBlargan, [Jason] Hottinger, [Andrew] Sorensen, those guys worked real hard for four years. For that to pay off and them have this kind of season, I’m real happy for them.”

The Tigers’ state tournament appearance was short lived. They fell to Southern Columbia, 40-26 Monday in a preliminary round match at Whitehall High School.

“They’re a tough team,” said Northwestern head coach Jim Moll. “We knew we were going to have our hands full.”

The Tigers grabbed a 10-0 on a major decision by Quentin Bernhard at 126 and Jarett White’s pin at 132 and was still ahead 14-4 after Ryan Dengler moved up a weight class and pulled out a major decision at 145.

Southern Columbia came storming back with three straight wins to take 16-14 lead after the 170-pound match.

Andrew Sorensen put Northwestern back in front with a decision win at 182, but Southern Columbia, the District 4 third-place team, won two straight bouts by fall to jump in front for good, 28-17.

Jacob Murray (285) made it 28-20 with a decision win before SC put the match away with pins at 106 and 113.

Northwestern’s Baily Wehr got a forfeit win at 120 to finish off the match.

Northwestern (15-4) wrestled without a pair of returning state qualifiers in Matt Peters and Caleb Clymer. With their full line up, it might have been a different match.

“If you have two state qualifiers out of your line up it makes it really tough,” said Moll. “That’s not an excuse. We made it this far without both them in the line up pretty much all year. I thought our team was good enough that we had a shot to win. They just did a better job tonight.”

Northwestern has made great strides over the past few seasons.

“We were close last year,” said Moll. “We felt we could have been here last year. To take one step forward this year was good. Hopefully we can take another step next year.”

Southern Columbia picked up 16 bonus points with five pins and one major decision. Northwestern won six matches, but only earned eight bonus points with a pair of pins and a pair of major decisions.

Southern Columbia 40,

Northwestern 26

126 – Quentin Bernhard (NW) major dec. Jake Renn, 10-0

132 – Jarett White (NW) pinned Michael Miner in 1:09

138 – Anthony DiCataldo (NW) major dec. Todd Lane, 10-4

145 – Ryan Dengler (NW) major dec. Jake Santor, 12-2

152 – John Gembic (SC) dec. Jackson Bernhard, 4-1

160 – Blake Marks (SC) pinned David VanBlargan in 1:25

170 – Anthony Scicchitano (SC) dec. Eddie Parrish, 3-1

182 – Andrew Sorensen (NW) dec. Carter Houseknecht, 4-1

195 – Kevin Olvaney (SC) pinned Jacob Shellhamer in 1:23

220 – Steve Toczylousky (SC) pinned Quin Moyer in 1:34

285 – Jacob Murray (NW) dec. Andrew Bell, 5-2

106 – Jaret Lane (SC) pinned Zach Anderson in :32

113 – Shane Casey (SC) pinned Ryan Haas in 4:51

120 – Baily Wehr (NW won by forfeit.