SEWARD, Neb. – The accolades keep coming for Concordia University, Nebraska, the NAIA’s all-time leader in Scholar-Athletes. Earlier this week, our institution was ranked 38th in the Best Regional Universities Midwest category as defined by U.S. News and World Report. On Thursday (Sept. 14), the NAIA named Concordia a Gold Level Champions of Character Five-Star Institution for the 2016-17 academic year.
According to the NAIA, “Institutions are measured on a demonstrated commitment to Champions of Character and earned points in character training, conduct in competition, academic focus, character recognition and character promotion. Institutions earned points based on exceptional student-athlete grade point averages and by having minimal to no ejections during competition throughout the course of the academic year.”
The ‘Gold Award’ is another demonstration of Concordia’s excellence athletically, academically and spiritually. In 2016-17, the Bulldogs again led the GPAC in Scholar-Athletes while ranking among the nation’s leaders with 19 NAIA Scholar-Teams. For the third consecutive year, an athletic department led by Director of Athletics Devin Smith and Associate Athletic Director Angela Muller, placed inside the top 20 in the NAIA Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup. Also for the third year in a row, the Bulldogs claimed a top two finish in the GPAC All-Sports Trophy Standings.
Additionally, five student-athletes collected CoSIDA Academic All-America accolades. Tabbed a CoSIDA Academic All-American of the Year, Chandler Folkerts accepted the prestigious Emil S. Liston Award this past April. Folkerts also garnered GPAC defensive player of the year accolades. Folkerts was one of the school’s headlining senior athletic performers in 2016-17, along with the likes of Amy Ahlers (GPAC golf champion), Trey Barnes (two-time football All-American), Cody Boellstorff (2017 weight throw and hammer national champ), Ken Burkhardt Jr. (three-time NAIA All-American), Ceron Francisco (heavyweight national runner up), Chrissy Lind (record breaking goalkeeper), Zach Lurz (five-time NAIA national champion), Kali Robb (three-time NAIA national runner up) and Lucas Wiechman (pole vault national champion).
Concordia University is a private institution that was founded in 1894. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 1,794, its setting is rural, and the campus size is 120 acres. It utilizes a semester-based academic calendar.