It was Lindenwood University's weekend. In fact, it has been Lindenwood's year. If there was any doubt, the team eliminated it forever with a dominating performance in the gold-medal finals of the NAIA National Wrestling Championships in Great Falls, Montana, March 2.    Lindenwood swept all three of its finals matches and claimed 11 individual All-Americans to win the school's first NAIA wrestling title. Host Montana-State Northern gave Lindenwood a tough challenge all tournament, but was unable to stay with Lindenwood in the deciding final round. The sold-out crowd of over 3,000 fans could not root the home team to victory this time.    Lindenwood Coach Joe Parisi had his entire team ready for this tournament, especially for the often challenging task of battling back through the consolation rounds after a loss. But with the spotlight of the gold-medal finals on them, Lindenwood saved its best for last.    "We met with the team before the tournament, and said that this is the nationals and anything can happen," said Parisi. "We must fight until it is all over. Every minute that you are out there, you must fight. I felt that we were ready coming in. You have to peak at the end of the year. When they came in here, they were ready to win, not just to wrestle."    When everybody left the arena after the morning session, Lindenwood held a thin six-point lead on Montana State-Northern going into the gold medal finals. When everybody arrived for the evening session, the lead had somehow become nine points.    It had been discovered that there was an error on a bout sheet submitted during the morning session, and the team points had been inaccurately reported. When it was corrected, the results showed Lindenwood's accurate total, and a slightly more commanding lead.    MSU-Northern came into the gold-medal round with five finalists and eight All-Americans, plus the home mat advantage. The Lights showed an ability all weekend to pick up bonus points with pins or major decisions, something that would be needed if they were to close the gap.    Coming into the finals, defending champion Southern Oregon had basically already clinched third place, too far behind the front-runners, but way ahead of the others. Mike Ritchey's team featured eight All-Americans, including two finalists.    Each victory was worth at least four team points (and more if there was a pin or major decision.) As MSU-Northern coach David Ray said after the finals, the Lights controlled their own destiny with the chance to take the title away from Lindenwood.    Things went bad for MSU-Northern from the opening match. No. 2 Carl Valley went up against No. 5 Justin Portenier of Dakota Wesleyan. With no points on the board, Portenier took down Valley and locked up a cradle and scored a quick pin at 1:29.    Lindenwood jumped at its first chance to add to its lead, when No. 5 Dustin Teeman dominated the action on the way to a 15-5 major decision over Saul Lucatero of Menlo in the 149-pound finals.    The next match for the teams was the first head-to-head showdown, as No. 5 Brian Holt of Lindenwood faced unseeded Kyle Klonizos of MSU-Northern at 165 pounds. It only took a few seconds before Holt took Klonizos down to his back and nearly scored a pin in the first period. Holt put Klonizos on his back again in the second period on a stepover counter and led 9-2 before Klonizos even got into the bout. The match ended with a 11-4 win for Holt, and the team outcome was in focus.    Immediately after, at 174 pounds, unseeded Dustin Zahursky of Lindenwood shocked the world by taking the action to MSU-Northern's No. 4 Kyle Fisher, and scoring an impressive 9-3 victory for the title. Zahursky scored two first-period takedowns and never let Fisher recover.    At that point, Lindenwood had swept its three finals and taken control of its own destiny. The entire team mobbed Zahursky to celebrate his surprise win, along with the joy of winning the team title at the end of the bleachers in the corner of the gym.    MSU-Northern closed out the tournament with two straight gold medal triumphs. No. 1 Tyson Thiverge opened up his takedown arsenal in a 20-6 smashing of No. 2 Will McCleve of Embry-Riddle at 184 pounds. Based upon his performance all weekend, Thiverge was awarded the Most Outstanding Wrestler trophy for the tournament.    Next up for MSU-Northern was No. 3 Emmitt Wilson at 197, who controlled the action the entire way for a 8-3 win over No. 4 Michael Sills of Southern Oregon. The two gold medals gave the local fans something to enjoy after watching Lindenwood take away MSU-Northern's chances of winning the team title on their home mats.    Lindenwood finished with 180 points, 13 ahead of MSU-Northern at 167 points. Southern Oregon was third with 131, followed by Embry Riddle with 107 and Wisconsin-Parkside with 102.5 points.    "We had control of our own destiny," said MSU-Northern coach Ray. "In those three matches we lost, we made the same mistakes. There was one bad position in our match at 125, and we didn't get a second chance. It hurt that we had under our control to take home first. It was a technical thing."    Meanwhile, Lindenwood coach Parisi was talking about how much winning the team title means to his team.     "I think it means great things for us," said Parisi. "We have a wonderful administration, and the program has 100% support from our president. I feel blessed to be at Lindenwood. Winning here starts a tradition for our program."    Parisi was named Coach of the Year by his peers, and the Lindenwood program received the Sears Award, which includes a $1,000 academic scholarship. Like we said, this was certainly Lindenwood's year.    In the other finals, No. 2 Rob Jankowski of Wisconsin-Parkside scored a takedown, a reversal and a riding time point to shut out unseeded Jordan Ottow of Southern Oregon, 5-0 at 133 pounds.    Menlo, a new college program, crowned a national champion in its first year when No. 2 James Guizar showed his dominance on the feet with four takedowns in an 11-7 win over No. 1 Brad Russell at 141 pounds.    At 157-pounds, No. 2 Pat Cadwallader of Embry-Riddle scored five points on a fireman's carry in the first period and went on to a 6-3 win over defending champion and No. 1 seed Neal Ewers of Simon Fraser.    The heavyweight final was a battle between teammates, as No. 1 Ken Kobes and No. 3 Dan Maynard of Embry-Riddle continued their daily battles in the gold-medal finals. The match went all the way to a tiebreaker, when Kobes scored a quick escape for a 3-2 victory. Kobes is the only past NAIA champion to claim the title this year.    The Most Falls award went to Joe Robinson of William Penn, with four pins in 9:10. Simon Fraser and the Univ. of Mary shared the Team Sportsmanship award for the tournament.