Head Coach: Dylan Owens (5th season)
2026 Place Finishes: 4th in Prairie Circuit Conference; 7th at ACUI National Championships – Division 2 (out of 12 teams).
Returning National Qualifiers: Cody Carlson; Ella Cowan; Hannah Dean; Colby Gaines; Clayton Gellerman; Brianna Helsene; Jerry Kaibel; Jaggar Luetje; Mackenzie Owens; Delayna Rife; Faith Ritchie; Lane Schoff; Cael Washburn; Katie Welker-Luetje.
2026 Nationals Highlights: Devin Harris – All-American; Kaylee Hinton – women’s open skeet national champion; Katie Welker – women’s HOA doubles trap national champion; women’s open doubles trap national champion; women’s open doubles skeet third place; All-American.
Outlook
Precious few practices will lead Concordia University, Nebraska Shooting Sports into its first competition of the 2026-27 season. Head Coach Dylan Owen’s Bulldogs will hit the road and travel to Kansas to finish out the first week of the new academic year. This weekend’s Fort Hays State University Fall Intercollegiate Shoot (Aug. 29-30) will mark the first of nine events on the docket throughout the coming season.
Last time out, Concordia placed seventh at the 2026 ACUI Collegiate Clay Target National Championships in San Antonio, Texas, this past spring. As a major positive takeaway, the Bulldogs received contributions up and down the roster.
As Owens says heading into the new campaign, “There's so much room for a lot of people on this team to grow. They're hard workers, and the beauty of shooting sports is that if you're willing to learn and work hard, you can be successful. You might not be successful every single time you compete, and that's fine, but your consistency will show. That's what I'm really excited to see this year.”
Owens enters his fifth season as head coach in what will be year No. 9 for shooting sports as a varsity athletic team. When factoring in graduate assistant coach Katie Welker-Luetje, Concordia returns 14 of its student-athletes who appeared at least season’s ACUI National Championships. The roster also features five freshmen, each of whom hail from the state of Nebraska.
Welker-Luetje (recently married to teammate Jaggar Luetje) put together a sterling 2025-26 senior season that wrapped up with All-America honors and HOA and open doubles trap national titles. Kansas City native Devin Harris is also back to action as a graduate student, looking to build upon an All-America claim of his own at the ’26 National Championships. On the other hand, the Bulldogs graduated Kaylee Hinton, the 2026 women’s open skeet national champion.
Harris spent two seasons at Hannibal LaGrange University (Mo.) before transferring to Concordia prior to his junior year. Harris proceeded to bust 544 targets (out of 600) at the 2025 National Championships before raising his total to a team best 555 at the 2026 national shoot. Harris cracked 98 targets in trap in his latest excursion in San Antonio and has his sights set on bigger and better this season.
Says Harris, “I came off the line after our last shot at nationals and told Coach Owens, ‘I'm going to be on that podium next year. I know what I need to do. Can you help me get there?’ I started working on a practice routine with him and just talking to him anytime outside of practice, trying to figure out what I need to work on week by week leading up to nationals to make sure I'm not making the same mistakes I did last year.”
Added Owens, “We're obviously excited to have Devin back. He and I talked a little bit at the end of last season after nationals and over the summer about refocusing on a few things that can really help him step up that much more. I think that will be really great this year.”
Based on HOA totals from last season’s national shoot, Harris and Welker-Luetje are backed by other top returning athletes such as sophomores Jerry Kaibel and Delayna Rife, junior Clayton Gellerman and seniors Colby Gaines, Faith Ritchie and Jaggar Luetje. Those individuals rounded out the team’s top 10 at nationals. Others with national championships experience include sophomores Brianna Helsene and Cody Carlson, senior Lane Schoff, juniors Ella Cowan and Hannah Dean and sophomore Mackenzie Owens.
Looking to make their mark as freshmen will be Nebraska-bred Jaydyn Backman (Blair), Grace Douglas (Roca), Ayla Rech (Davey), Holly Sievert (Norfolk) and Meighan Smith (Murdock).
Owens noted how significantly last season’s freshmen grew over the course of the year. He also made mention of the progress shown by Cowan (Lincoln, Neb.), Gellerman (Anchorage, Alaska) and Helsene (Minot, N.D.).
“Last year, especially at nationals, we saw what we were hoping for at the beginning of the season: more people contributing to the overall team scores,” Owens said. “We saw a lot of athletes in their late sophomore or junior years starting to really understand things and develop. We're excited to see what they can do as juniors and seniors. That's what you want. You want athletes to come in knowing enough to get started, then work really hard over the coming years so they can be successful toward the end of their careers.”
Though there’s a largely individual dynamic to the sport, many Bulldog competitors cite team camaraderie, bonding and road trips as their favorite aspects of being part of the program. Team chemistry is just starting to build in the early part of the semester. A Lincoln Northeast High School product, Dean is doing her best to help create a welcoming environment for the newcomers.
Says Dean, “A lot of that starts at practice and not just having a squad of upperclassmen. It's inviting the freshmen to come and shoot with you and practice because you're likely going to have a freshman on your squad. So, getting to know how they shoot in practice is going to help you this weekend as well.”
As Dean detailed, the Bulldogs are still developing expectations and goals for the year. She noted that the team will have had only three practices by the time the Fort Hays State Shoot gets underway. Due to those circumstances, Owens is keeping it simple in the opening week. As Owens stated, “We’re going to lean heavily on shooting your event. Whatever you’re most comfortable with, that’s what I want us to be prepared for going into Fort Hays.”
It takes time for everyone to get acclimated with all six events that are contested at the ACUI National Championships: skeet, doubles skeet, trap, doubles trap, sporting clays and super sporting. The Fort Hays Shoot will allow select competitors to take aim at many of these disciplines (with the exception of skeet). Part of the learning process for freshmen is simply understanding how to transition from one event to the next.
So, what would make this season a success? At least right now, Owens and his athletes aren’t discussing specific place finishes or whether they should exceed their 2025-26 placements of fourth in the Prairie Circuit Conference and seventh at nationals. This early in the fall semester, the focus is placed upon proper daily habits.
Says Harris, “I would like to see progress in a lot of our shooters. A lot of our shooters came in and had an understanding of the other disciplines, but some of them came in with just a single discipline. I've been watching them over the past couple of years, and so many of them have improved so much. I just want to see them keep improving this year. As far as personally, just go out there and not get frustrated when I miss. Go out there and just shoot for the glory of God, and He’ll take care of you.”
Owens stresses that it will take everyone doing their part for the team to reach its full potential. As recently as 2023, the Bulldogs earned a third-place nationals finish. By the end of the fall, Concordia will have an idea if a similar lofty achievement is possible.
“The big thing for me is continuing what we did last year, especially at nationals, where more people contributed,” Owens said. “Hopefully, more people contribute and the scores are better. If we can continue to have a broader contribution from the team—which was a huge success in my opinion last year—but also get the scores up a little bit, I think that would raise our chances of placing higher. It would also show a broad team success.”
Following the Fort Hays State Shoot, the Bulldogs will continue their fall season with the Midland Warrior Open (Sept. 19-20), Prairie Circuit Conference Championships (Sept. 25-27), Hastings Bronco Invite (Oct. 3-4) and Southeast Community College Invite. The spring semester will feature four events, including the 2027 ACUI Collegiate Clay Target National Championships in San Antonio. The complete schedule can be found HERE.