SIOUX CITY, Iowa – All nine GPAC men’s wrestling programs convened upon The Arena Sports Academy in Sioux City, Iowa, for the big finish to the conference dual season. Over a trio of GPAC battles on Saturday (Jan. 29), the Concordia University Wrestling team came away with a victory over Jamestown, 27-17, that followed losses to Northwestern, 24-15, and Briar Cliff, 28-12. All conference teams participated in a similar event that was held back on Dec. 1.
This was the first run through the conference for Head Coach Myron Bradbury. The Bulldogs now stand at 3-5 in GPAC duals, putting them in a sixth-place finish. Concordia is 5-6 overall with one nonconference dual left to be contested.
“The No. 1 thing is that we got better every dual,” Bradbury said. “I wish we could start as well as we finished and as strong as we finished. Improvements are still happening and still getting made. We’re set up for a great postseason push. The first dual meet today we had some great effort and made some wild decisions. In the second dual, we cleaned things up with our focus. By the third dual, they were really going well. Each match they got better and better. Everybody has individual takeaways from today. We ran into some stylistic matchups – it gives us something to work on.”
There were no forfeits on Saturday as all 30 matches had to be earned by either side. Eleven different Bulldogs wrestled at least one match. Concordia shook off the two team defeats to begin the day and got on a roll against the Jimmies. As part of the victory, Isaac Agabin (125), Jeaven Scdoris (149) and Issiah Burks (165) each earned pins. Meanwhile wins by decision were turned in by Tavoris Smith (157), TJ Huber (174) and Hunter Weimer (184). Of the four Jamestown triumphs, two came with bonus points (tech fall at 141 and pin at 197).
In his first action since the calendar flipped to 2022, returning All-American Mario Ybarra went 2-0 on the day with decisions over Northwestern’s Manuel Jaramillo, 3-1, and Briar Cliff’s Gabriel Howard, 6-2. In the dual with Northwestern, Weimer (197) and Jacob Telles (285) emerged with a pin apiece to narrow a team score that had ballooned to 24-3 in favor of the Red Raiders. In the matchup with Briar Cliff, Burks (165) and Huber (174) won by decision and Telles (285) edged Alton Allen, 3-1, in sudden victory.
When the dust settled, five Bulldogs finished with two wins on Saturday: Burks, Huber, Telles, Weimer and Ybarra. One win each was seized by Agabin, Scdoris and Smith. As a team, Concordia tallied five pins on the day, each by different individuals.
Prior to Saturday, the Bulldogs had posted GPAC dual wins over Dakota Wesleyan, 32-13, and Midland, 32-18. Concordia entered Saturday with seven ranked competitors within the official GPAC ratings. In the individual bouts at the GPAC dual event, the Bulldogs saw three opposing returning national qualifiers, including two from Briar Cliff and one from Northwestern.
The Bulldogs will celebrate their senior class on Thursday (Feb. 3) when York College will be in town for a dual. A senior ceremony will precede the action, which is slated to get started at 7 p.m. CT inside Friedrich Arena. Concordia will be looking for a measure of revenge after dropping two duals to the Panthers last season.