What will win this year's NAIA Championships? Will it be a strong performance in the championship bracket, or will a total team effort in the consolation rounds be the difference? Lindenwood Univ. is hoping its overall  team depth will prevail, while Montana-State Northern is looking to continue its dominance in the winner's bracket.    As a long day of wrestling concluded, Lindenwood held a shaky 13-point lead over MSU-Northern in what has been an unpredictable tournament with many swings of emotion.    Montana State Univ.-Northern coach David Ray said coming into this event that he might have the greatest team this year in the history of their successful program. In the quarterfinals, his athletes may have proven him to be accurate.     MSU-Northern captured the intensity with an explosive beginning to the evening session, scoring three straight pins in the quarterfinals. With each pin, the large and partisan homecrowd exploded with more noise, giving the Lights a true hometown advantage.    With both head coach David Ray and assistant coach Terry Brands having roots in the Univ. of Iowa program, the intense wrestling of the MSU-Northern wrestlers going for bonus points brings memories of some of the runs that the Hawkeyes have made in major events in the past.    The first MSU-Northern pin came at 125 pounds, when No. 2 Carl Valley decked No. 7 Tony Churchill of Simon Fraser in just 58 seconds. Next came Caleb Schaefer, the No. 3 seed at 133, who put away No. 6 Brant Bruner of Lindenwood in 4:45. The noise broke the decibel record on the third pin, when unseeded Eric Dunmire planted No. 4 Collin Murphy of Southern Oregon in 4:20.    The Lights weren't done with the pins, as No. 1 Tyson Thiverge scored a sudden pin at 2:34 in a close match against Donnie Davis of  William Penn. When it was all over, the host team placed an amazing eight wrestlers wrestlers into the semifinals.     After the quarterfinals, the Lights jumped to a commanding position in first place, with 107 points,  21 points ahead of second place Lindenwood. After the quarterfinals, defending champion Southern Oregon was third with 78 points and Embry-Riddle climbed back to fourth with 70 points.     "We talked to the athletes; we had a meeting," said Coach Ray. "We did well because the wrestlers were prepared to do it for themselves. We told them to take care of their matches and the team race would take care of itself."    "I believed that they all could win their matches," he continued. "Then, when I saw the draw, I was even more confident. Momentum helps and the crowd helps. But you could wrestle this tournament in Siberia and it wouldn't matter because they feed off each other's success."    As the session went on, it seemed that having a seed was a curse, as many high seeds, including numerous No. 1 wrestlers, went down for the count.    At 133, No. 1 Andrew Medders of Cumberland College was stopped by unseeded Jordan Ottow of Southern Oregon. At 149, No. 1 Joseph Calavitta was upset by unseeded Danny Castillo of Menlo College. At 165, No. 1 Jason Labrie of Mary fell victim to Jeremy Dick of Missouri Valley College, 3-3 in a tiebreaker. At 174, No. 1 Matt Cobb of Missouri Valley was caught and pinned by Nathaniel Augustson of Embry-Riddle. Add in the earlier rounds, and only 5 of the 10 top seeds were able to advance to the semifinals.    Being unseeded proved to be a good thing for many wrestlers. Maybe it is good to be underappreciated. A whopping seven unseeded wrestlers made the semifinals.     The 174-pound weight class was an amazing mess. In the top bracket, No. 8 Nathaniel Augustin of Embry-Riddle will face No. 4 Kyle Fisher of MSU-Northern in the semifinals. In the bottom bracket, both semifinalist are unseeded, Joe Robinson of William Penn and Dustin Zahursky of Lindenwood. This pairing will guarantee that there will be an unseeded finalist at this weight during Saturday night's finals.    It shows that the seeding committee has a tough challenge at this tournament. As the number of NAIA schools continues to increase, and the quality of the programs advance in quality, the national tournament has become a volitile and unpredictable barnburner.    What a difference a few hours makes. If any MSU-Northern fans left after the quarterfinals, they would have believed that the Lights had the tournament under control. However, the evening continued on after the quarterfinals with two more rounds of consolations. This is where Lindenwood made a run, advancing five wrestlers through the fourth round of wrestlebacks to close the gap and overtake MSU-Northern.    In the first round of the wrestle-backs, all of Lindenwood's wrestlers in the consolations were able to stay alive, giving them 11 wrestlers still in the hunt (six in the semis and five in the wrestlebacks). Meanwhile, MSU-Northern's two consolation wrestlers were elminated. At the end of the fourth round, Lindenwood had jumped back to a slight lead, 109.5 points to 107 points.     Another round of wrestle-backs followed, and with no MSU-Northern wrestlers in the gym, Lindenwood extended its lead with a few more triumphs. Lindenwood returned to the hotel with 120 points, a 13-point edge earning entirely in the consolations.    Those who stuck it out through all of the consolation action left the gym knowing that the team race was still very much up for grabs, and that fans will need to watch every match on Saturday to know which team would ultimately triumph.    Semifinal pairings  125-pounds  unseeded Ivan Sanchez (William Penn) vs. No. 5 Justin Portenier (Dakota Wesleyan)  No. 6 Aaron Hartnell (Mary) vs. No. 2 Carl Valley (MSU-Northern)    133-pounds  unseeded Jordan Ottow (Southern Oregon) vs. No. 5 Dustin Sanders (Embry-Riddle)  No. 3 Caleb Schaeffer (MSU-Northern) vs. No. 2 Rob Janikowski (Wisconsin-Parkside)    141-pounds  No. 1 Brad Russell (Wisconsin-Parkside) vs. unseeded Eric Dunmire (MSU-Northern)  No. 3 CJ Campbell (Lindenwood) vs. No. 2 James Guizar (Menlo)    149-pounds  unseeded Danny Castillo (Menlo) vs. No. 5 Dustin Teeman (Lindenwood)  No. 6 Chris Harada (Simon Fraser) vs. No. 7 Saul Lucatero (Menlo)    157-pounds  No. 1 Neal Ewers (Simon Fraser) vs. No. 4 James Bean (Bacone College)  No. 3 Joey Martinez (Menlo) vs. No. 2 Pat Cadwallader (Embry-Riddle)    165-pounds  No. 8 Jory Dick (Missouri Valley) vs. No. 5 Brian Holt (Lindenwood)  Unseeded Kyle Klonizos (MSU-Northern) vs. No. 7 Andy Mueller (Wisconsin-Parkside)    174-pounds  No. 8 Nathaniel Augustin (Embry-Riddle) vs. No. 4 Kyle Fisher (MSU-Northern)  Unseeded Joe Robinson (William Penn) vs. unseeded Dustin Zahursky (Lindenwood)    184-pounds  No. 1 Tyson Thiverge (MSU-Northern) vs. No. 5 Abram Haddon (Southern Oregon)  No. 3 Eric Brown (Lindenwood) vs. No. 2 Will McCleve (Embry-Riddle)    197 pounds  No. 1 Michael Irving (Cumberland College) vs. No. 4 Michael Sills (Southern Oregon)  No. 3 Emmett Wilson (MSU-Northern) vs. No. 7 Wayne James (Lindenwood)    Heavyweight  No. 1 Ken Kobes (Embry-Riddle) vs. No. 5 Matt Carter (MSU-Northern)  No. 3 Dan Maynard (Embry-Riddle) vs. No. 2 Michael Whitehead (Southern Oregon)