SEWARD, Neb. – In front of a strong home opening crowd, the Concordia University Wrestling team entertained the audience with six match victories via bonus points on Wednesday (Nov. 1). The dual marked the second year in a row that the Bulldogs have opened a season against GPAC rival Midland. The result in this instance was a 45-6 rout for Concordia. Picked sixth in the GPAC in the preseason, the Bulldogs are out to prove they are far better than the prognostications.
Head Coach Chase Clasen has begun his second year leading the Concordia program. He was pleased overall with Wednesday’s results but believes his squad has more left in the tank.
A Kenesaw, Neb., native, Stephen Duffy got his campaign started with a 17-5 major decision at 174 pounds. Said Duffy, “We were really excited coming in. We feel like we have a really neat group of people who are talented and hardworking, so we were really excited for the first competition. We really wanted to come out here and put on a show. We knew a lot of people were going to show up, and they did. We wanted to put some points on the board. We knew we were better than what we were ranked, and we wanted to show that.”
As one of two competitors to make their Bulldog debuts, 125-pound freshman Martim Moniz (East Providence, R.I.) set the tone for the evening with a pin just before the close of the first period. Moniz had jumped out to a 7-0 lead before wiping out Midland’s Janson Pilkington. The dominoes fell from there as Creighton Baughman won by tech fall at 141, Barret Brandt (Syracuse, Neb.) pinned his opponent at 165, Duffy and Hunter Weimer (184) triumphed by major decision and Mason Garcia throttled his foe by technical fall at 197. A native of Arroyo Grande, Calif., Garcia made a long-awaited return to the mat and took advantage of the opportunity. Like Moniz, Brandt is a freshman that got his first collegiate match under his belt.
Wins with bonus points:
· 125 – Martim Moniz (Fall 2:49)
· 141 – Creighton Baughman (TF 15-0)
· 165 – Barret Brandt (Fall 2:02)
· 174 – Stephen Duffy (MD 17-5)
· 184 – Hunter Weimer (MD 15-4)
· 197 – Mason Garcia (TF 21-6)
Other winners for Concordia were Grant Wells (133) and Jeaven Scdoris (157) by forfeit and Tracey Allen (149) by decision. The lone victory for the Warriors came at the very end of the evening when Ryan Kocovsky pinned Cy Renney late in the third period. It was the one highlight for Midland, which has a first-year head coach in Doyle Trout.
Due to the dominance of the Bulldogs, the dual lasted just over an hour. Midland (2-6 in the GPAC last season) managed only three takedowns (now worth three points) for the entire dual. It was an impressive start for the returning national qualifier Baughman, who recorded a takedown and 12 near fall points while ending his match in the first period. As for Brandt, he went on the offensive in producing a takedown and eight near fall points before emerging with the pin.
Duffy went 15-10 last season and is considered one of the team’s leaders in the room. Said Duffy in assessing his first match of 2023-24, “I was pleased. I felt like I went and wrestled hard. That’s really what it’s about. We get focused on wins and losses too much and don’t focus on what’s really important – and that’s wrestling and glorifying God. That’s what’s awesome about this sport – it’s individual and you can go out there and compete as you want to.”
The season’s first tournament will take place this Saturday as the Bulldogs compete at the Luther Hill Invite hosted by NCAA Division III Simpson University. The action is slated to get underway at 9 a.m. CT from Indianola, Iowa. Clasen expects to travel roughly 20 wrestlers to Indianola. Concordia will make its next home appearance on Nov. 17 for a dual versus Hastings.