MARSHALL, Mo. – One of two Bulldogs to reach championship matches, Hagen Heistand celebrated a 157-pound title while leading Concordia University, Nebraska Wrestling to a third-place finish at the Missouri Valley Invite. Twelve Bulldogs combined for 124 team points at the event that annually serves as a showcase for NAIA wrestling. While earning the program’s best ever finish at the Missouri Valley Invite, 22nd-ranked Concordia advanced six wrestlers to the quarterfinals and three to the semifinals. The tournament featured 41 NAIA wrestling programs.
Head Coach Josh Watts' squad is rounding into form with the conference championships roughly four weeks away. Watt’s additional place finishers in Marshall, Mo., included Paul Ruff (second at 133), Cole Price (fourth at 165), Barret Brandt (fourth at 184) and Torrance Keehn (eighth at 197).
“It was a bit of a rollercoaster with some ups and downs, but we had some pretty good performances,” Watts said. “We won some big matches and lost some we maybe shouldn’t have lost. We have a good idea of what we need to work on. We’re going in the right direction. We just have to keep building on it … it’s a tough tournament. I think it’s a good measuring stick for us. It should give our team some confidence that we can go and compete in a tournament format. Our team is definitely built for tournaments.”
Last season’s NAIA national runner up at 149, Heistand has made the move to 157 pounds. In his first tournament at that weight class, NAIA 10th-ranked Heistand took the crown while going 5-0 with three wins via bonus points. As part of his run, the Dow City, Iowa, native knocked off top 25 foes in No. 25 Ryan Graves of Montana State-Northern and No. 12 Josey Jernegan of Saint Mary (Kan.). In the title bout, Heistand scored a takedown to win in sudden victory over Jernegan. Heistand racked up 25.5 points towards the team scoring.
A former All-American at Iowa Western Community College, Ruff won his first eight matches as a Bulldog and made his way to the MO Valley championship match at 133 pounds. As a highlight of his tournament, Ruff toppled Briar Cliff’s 17th-ranked Dante Rigal by a 6-2 decision in the quarterfinals. Ruff then triumphed by major decision in the semifinals before running into Indiana Tech’s third-ranked Luke Rioux in a championship clash decided by technical fall.
One of the team’s two fourth-place finishers, Brandt continues to stack pins at 184 pins. The Syracuse, Neb., native has moved to No. 2 on the program’s all-time pins list (44 career pins) after notching four more at the Missouri Valley Invite. For the second time this season, Brandt managed to defeat nationally ranked Nate McDonald of Midland. Brandt reached the semifinals and wound up falling in the third-place match. He posted 21.5 team points.
Meanwhile, Cole Price (26-5) went 6-2 (21 team points) at 165 pounds. Price produced three pins on his way to his fourth tournament place finish of the season. Price’s loss in the quarterfinal round came against the NAIA’s No. 12-ranked competitor at 165.
At the upper weights, Keehn and Jeremiah Vasquez (285) both reached the quarterfinals before enduring defeat. All three of Keehn’s victories came with bonus points attached (including two pins). Keehn’s three losses were handed out by ranked foes. As for Vasquez, he started his tournament with back-to-back wins (one by pin) before falling short of a place finish.
Concordia place finishers at the Missouri Valley Invite:
· 133 – Paul Ruff: 2nd
· 157 – Hagen Heistand: 1st
· 165 – Cole Price: 4th
· 184 – Barret Brandt: 4th
· 197 – Torrance Keehn: 8th
Eleven of the 12 Bulldogs in the tournament field put team points on the board. Other contributors were Stevie Barnes (8.5 points at 141), Cal Price (1.0 point at 149), Cannon Carey (3.5 points at 165), Hunter Weimer (3.5 points at 174) and Evan Sepanlou (3.5 points at 174). Barnes notched three pins in the process of moving his season record to 11-5. The other Concordia competitor in Marshall was Bryce Karlin (141).
Added Watts in breaking down his two tournament finalists, “Hagen has looked a lot better (at 157). He’s moving more like himself. He wrestled well today, and he’ll continue to get better the more matches he gets here. Paul looked significantly better this weekend compared to last time out. Every match he gets, he’ll get a little better. We have plenty of time for those guys to jump a couple more levels. We have some good things going on. It will be fun to see how we progress over the next few weeks.”
Select Bulldogs will be in action again next Saturday when the Dave Edmonds Open takes place on the Morningside campus. The tournament is set to get underway at 9 a.m. CT in Sioux City, Iowa. Once the Edmonds Open wraps up, the lone remaining event prior to the GPAC Championships will be GPAC Day of Duals No. 2 on Feb. 7.