FORT WAYNE, Ind. – On the second day of the NWCA National Duals the eighth-ranked Concordia wrestling team finished in seventh place, giving the program its first placing in the tournament. The Bulldogs were first defeated by No. 6 Life University, 27-15 and then went on to get revenge over No. 14 Lindsey Wilson in a 19-15 triumph to finish in seventh place.
Head coach Dana Vote said, “It was great to finish strong and beat Lindsey Wilson who knocked us off in the first round. I think overall we just had a great team effort for the whole weekend. It’s a tough tournament and the guys are pretty beat up, it’s the toughest tournament we’ve wrestled in all year and we wrestled well.”
The Bulldogs are now 7-3 in duals this year.
Andrew Schulte went undefeated during the tourney, putting together 12 consecutive wins. On day two, Schulte toppled his first opponent by a 15-2 technical fall and then again found victory over an opponent who had beat him in the national tournament last season.
Coming in as a freshman, Kyle Carey impressed coach Vote under national tournament competition.
“Kyle stepped in a filled a whole for us. He did his job and won a couple matches. He had some kids that were top ranked guys and he went out and battled hard and put us in a position to win as a team,” Vote said.
Competing against another top-10 team, the Bulldogs saw some stiff competition in Life University. Concordia led by as much as four throughout the dual when Austin Starkey won by a 5-4 decision in overtime. The Running Eagles then recorded two consecutive pins to take a 21-15 lead into the last match. A close 3-2 decision loss handed to Ceron Francisco gave Life the victory.
The next dual was to determine which team received seventh place. Concordia again had to face Lindsey Wilson, who had knocked off the Bulldogs in a tie breaker in the first round. Looking for some payback, the ‘Dogs started out with a 3-0 lead with Dmitri Smith defeating the eighth ranked wrestler in the 125 weight class. After the Blue Raiders came back twice to tie the score, Jr Lule found victory by the way of a technical fall to give the Bulldogs a five point lead. After that, Concordia never trailed to go on to finish seventh.
“Missouri Valley is a tough tournament,” said Vote. “It’s an invite and has about 32 teams in it. There are a lot of the top NAIA school is in the country competing in it, too. We’re going to see some more national competition so it’ll be a great opportunity for us.”
The Concordia wrestling team will return to the mat next weekend as it travels to Marshall, Mo. For the Missouri Valley Invite on Jan. 16-15. Friday action will begin at 5 p.m. while Saturday’s start time is slated for 1 p.m.