Griz sweep ISU Invitational with two titles

Friday, September 19

Pocatello, Idaho

All Day

Montana

Bengal Invitational

9/21/2025 6:40:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Results

By: Montana Sports Information

The defending Big Sky champion Montana men's tennis team swept the competition at the Idaho State Invitational in Pocatello over the weekend, with the Grizzlies claiming titles in both the singles and doubles brackets.

Senior Baltazar Wiger-Nordas, who became the first Grizzly to ever earn ATP Tour points over the summer, went undefeated to win the singles draw. Meanwhile, sophomore Johnny Wilkinson and junior newcomer Joseph Townes teamed up to run through the doubles unbeaten.

It's the third career fall tournament title for Wiger-Nordas, who finished last season as a first-team All-Big Sky pick with an ITA Mountain Region top 20 ranking, and the first for both Wilkinson and Townes.

The ISU Invitational was a bracket of 32 tournament with players from Montana, Montana State, Utah State, and the host Bengals represented. UM traveled four players total, with freshman Matt Upton the other Grizzly to make the trip.

"We took four guys down here and the only guy not leaving with hardware went 3-1 in singles, so we're feeling pretty happy with the level. Our best day was the last day of the tournament for sure," said head coach Jason Brown.

"No better way to wrap up a weekend than bringing home all the hardware available."

Wiger-Nordas advanced to the championship match after beating Hayden Ciguenza of Idaho State in three sets in the round of 16 with a pair of tiebreaks, winning 6-1,7-6(1), 7-6(3). He then powered through a quarterfinal win over Utah State's Dimitri Goubin 6-2, 6-2, to reach the semifinal.

There he needed another three-set comeback to beat ISU's Luka Vujacic 6-2, 5-7, 6-3, and advance to the final.

The title match against ISU's Valentino De Pellegrin was sweet revenge for Wiger-Nordas, who had fallen to the Bengal ace in his last two meetings. The Grizzly senior left no doubt though, bursting out to a 5-0 lead in the first set and finishing strong with a 6-1, 6-2, straight set demolition of De Pellegrin to claim the title and go 5-0 on the weekend.

"He played really high level, aggressive, big boy tennis. He had a couple losses to that guy, who's one of the best players in the Big Sky for sure. He started fast, kept believing in himself, and finished strong, which was really nice to see. He took care of business like an absolute professional," said Brown.

"I'm proud of him. He worked really, really hard this summer. He played in a lot of tournaments, so it's nice to see the reward for his effort."

In doubles, Townes and Wilkinson started off with a convincing 8-3 win over Idaho State's Dalos/Wensley pair before battling their way through to the final by grinding out a tiebreaker win over the Bengals' De Pellegrin/Vujacic pair 8(11), 7(9) in a marathon.

The Grizzly pair met another ISU duo on the championship match, and again battled through a tiebreaker before knocking off the Bouman/De Visser pair 8(7), 7(2), to claim the second title of the weekend for UM.

Montana now turns its attention to the premiere event on the fall calendar, the ITA Mountain Regional in Las Vegas Oct. 15-20.

"A lot of great things this weekend but we've got a lot to work on. We've got a nice, three-week training block before regionals, so we feel excited about where we're at. We also know how much better we have to get," added Brown.

"It makes all the hard work these guys have put in to start the year off worth it when almost everyone went undefeated. So, we're excited about that, and I think it motivates the guys to work even harder."