SEWARD, Neb. – The wrestling national qualifying field was officially announced on Tuesday (Feb. 21) by the NAIA. The Concordia University Wrestling program will send four qualifiers to the NAIA Wrestling National Championships to be held in Park City, Kan., March 3-4. The following Bulldogs earned their way to nationals thanks to automatic bids: Creighton Baughman (141), Tavoris Smith (157), Issiah Burks (165) and Logan Davidson (184).
Each of the competitors that Head Coach Chase Clasen will bring to the national tournament will experience NAIA nationals for the first time in their careers. All four Bulldogs qualified based on their performances at this past weekend's GPAC Championships. Burks won the conference’s 165-pound title, Baughman (two-time JUCO All-American) and Smith placed second in their weight classes and Davidson took third place in his bracket. Unfortunately, Concordia’s top at-large candidates did not receive bids to wrestle at nationals.
Each conference tournament was awarded automatic bids per weight class based on the final regular-season poll, which can be seen HERE. Each conference was awarded automatic berths based on the amount of wrestlers ranked in each weight class. Each conference was awarded a minimum of one automatic bid per weight class, which will go to the tournament individual champions, even if the conference did not have any wrestlers ranked in the final regular-season poll.
After the conference tournaments concluded, an 18-member committee consisting of conference raters and oversight members met to select the remaining national at-large qualifiers. In total, 36 student-athletes were selected by at-large classification. The seeding and preliminary brackets will be announced on NAIA.org by 5 p.m. (CST) on Friday, February 24.
For additional information on the 2023 NAIA Men's Wrestling National Championships, click HERE.
Concordia’s 2023 National Qualifiers
141 – Creighton Baughman, Sophomore
--Season record: 23-8
--GPAC runner up
--First-time NAIA national qualifier
--Two-time JUCO All-American
157 – Tavoris Smith, Senior
--Season record: 6-3
--GPAC runner up
--First-time NAIA national qualifier
165 – Issiah Burks, Senior
--Season record: 17-11
--GPAC champion
--First-time NAIA national qualifier
184 – Logan Davidson, Freshman
--Season record: 12-5
--Third place in GPAC
--First-time NAIA national qualifier