Four Bulldogs named to NAIA wrestling Scholar-Athlete list

By Jacob Knabel on Feb. 28, 2024 in Wrestling

2023-24 Daktronics NAIA Men’s Wrestling Scholar-Athletes

SEWARD, Neb. – A group of four Bulldogs represented the Concordia University Wrestling program on the list of 2023-24 NAIA men’s wrestling Scholar-Athletes released on Wednesday (Feb. 28) by the NAIA. Concordia award winners include Creighton Baughman, Stephen Duffy, Henry Gaertner and Anthony Perez. Gaertner and Perez are repeat Scholar-Athlete honorees.

The 2023-24 list of men’s wrestling honorees nationally includes 253 student-athletes. In order to be nominated by an institution’s head coach or sports information director, a student-athlete must maintain a minimum grade point average of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale, must appear on the eligibility certificate for the sport and have attended one full year at said institution.

Baughman is preparing to take the mat at the 2024 NAIA Men’s Wrestling National Championships on Thursday. He has qualified for nationals at 141 pounds for the second-straight year. Baughman is studying Biology at Concordia. In addition, Duffy is majoring in Psychology, Gaertner is majoring in Secondary Education and Perez is a Social Science Secondary Education major.

Concordia University ranks as the NAIA’s all-time leader in number of Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athletes with 2,322 entering the 2023-24 academic year. The school record for number of Scholar-Athletes in one academic year is 226 achieved in 2019-20. Concordia has been a regular national leader for both Scholar-Athletes and Scholar-Teams.

2023-24 Concordia Wrestling Scholar-Athletes

·        Creighton Baughman (Papillion, Neb.)

·        Stephen Duffy (Kenesaw, Neb.)

·        Henry Gaertner (Royal Oak, Mich.)

·        Anthony Perez (Redondo Beach, Calif.)