2024-25 Dual Record: 6-2 overall, 6-2 GPAC (T-2nd); 3rd at GPAC tournament
2025 NAIA National Championships finish: T-17th
Head Coach: Josh Watts (2nd season; spent 13 seasons as head coach at Iowa Western CC)
Key Returners: 149 Steven Barnes; 184 Barret Brandt; 149 Hagen Heistand; 133 Bryce Karlin; 197 Torrance Keehn; 157 Cole Price; 184 Hunter Weimer; 133 Grant Wells.
Key Losses: 141 Creighton Baughman; 197 Mason Garcia; 165 Tommy Wentz.
2025 GPAC All-Conference: Creighton Baughman (First Team); Hagen Heistand (First Team); Cole Price (Second Team); Tommy Wentz (Second Team); Steven Barnes (Honorable Mention); Hunter Weimer (Honorable Mention).
2025 NAIA All-Americans: Creighton Baughman (141); Hagen Heistand (149).
Outlook
A return to the top 20 of the team standings at the NAIA National Championships is just a start in the minds of Head Coach Josh Watts and members of the Concordia University, Nebraska Wrestling program. Entering the 2025-26 season, the arrow is clearly pointed upward as the Bulldogs welcome back six national qualifiers to a roster as deep as the program has boasted in quite some time. Concordia landed at No. 19 in the NAIA’s preseason national ratings. With the right approach and progression, the Bulldogs believe they can outperform their preseason standing.
After 13 years as head coach at Iowa Western Community College, Watts took on a new challenge a year ago and began putting his stamp on Concordia Wrestling. Prior to last season, Watts convinced eventual All-American Creighton Baughman to return for one more year and secured late impact transfers such as Steven Barnes, Hagen Heistand and Cole Price. The results were impressive.
“I think we saw a lot of growth last year,” Watts said. “I’m proud of the effort the guys put in. It’s hard for them to have a new staff come in and go through those changes. The first semester was a bit up and down. We kind of hit our groove second semester. I was real happy with how they finished the season and how hard we competed.”
In addition to a share of 17th place at last season’s NAIA National Championships, the 2024-25 Bulldogs posted GPAC place finishes of tied for second in the regular season and third at the conference tournament. Seeded 11th, the 149-pound Heistand made waves by claiming national runner-up status. He was joined on the All-America podium by Baughman, who placed eighth nationally at 141 pounds. Heistand headlines the list of returning national qualifiers that includes Barnes (149), Barret Brandt (184), Torrance Keehn (197), Cole Price (157) and Hunter Weimer (184).
Each of the six returning national qualifiers appeared in both the GPAC and NAIA national rankings to begin this season. Cal Price (141) and Gabe Kant (285) also landed in the conference ratings within their respective weight classes. The roster of 31 includes 23 holdovers and eight newcomers (five transfers and three freshmen). Watt’s Iowa Western background proved fruitful once again as former Reivers Cannon Carey (165), Aaron Ohnoutka (133) and Paul Ruff (133) are among the new additions.
“I think our depth is significantly better than what we had last year,” Watts said. “I think there’s going to be a little more competition to be part of the 12 going into the conference tournament at the end of the year. Competition is great for everyone. We’ll have guys competing for spots to be in the 12 at the end of the year. We’ll see who puts together the best resume when it comes down to it.”
Competition is something Weimer (Porterville, Calif.) and his teammates have embraced. The Bulldogs are thriving on a healthy but intense environment that characterizes the daily routine within the program. Since arriving, Watts has instituted his “ladder system,” a movement-based system using patterns and sequencing that is tailored to suit each individual. Weimer stood out as just one example of the immense growth that took place throughout 2024-25. Weimer went from a 17-13 record in 2023-24 to a 21-7 record and a national tournament berth in 2024-25.
“He’s brought so much – so much structure and so much development,” Weimer said of Watts. “The ‘ladder system’ is something we’ve worked on. It makes me jealous of the freshmen and sophomores coming in. I’m so excited to see where those guys are going to be at over the next couple of years. Everyone’s gotten so much better. It’s made it tougher in the practice room. It’s just made us all better. He’s brought a huge development factor to the program for sure.”
A transfer from NCAA Division I Campbell University, Heistand waited until the second semester of last season to make his Concordia debut. It was worth the wait. He proceeded to go 20-4 overall and blaze his way to the 149-pound NAIA national championship match. He begins this season ranked No. 1 in the GPAC and No. 2 in the NAIA in his weight class. He became the fourth competitor in program history to reach the national finals.
The Dow City, Iowa, native Heistand will be gunning for a national title in year two as a Bulldog. Said Watts, “Hagen’s a really good wrestler. He was a state champ in Iowa coming out of high school. I’d known him since he was little. I knew what he was capable of. We were able to get him in a really good rhythm second semester. He was right there to win a title. We’re hoping we get over that hump in the next year or two.”
Heistand is one of four returners who won at least 20 matches last season. The others are Barret Brandt (21-9), Cole Price (21-11) and Weimer (21-7). The Syracuse, Neb., native Brandt broke the school record for pins in a single season with 24 in 2023-24. Meanwhile, Price reached the 157-pound GPAC title match in his first Concordia season and is another former Iowa Western wrestler. Other returners who seized at least 10 victories last season were Simon Arredondo (10-9), Barnes (17-10), Bryce Karlin (13-11), Keehn (15-8), Cal Price (12-3) and Grant Wells (11-7).
In the NAIA preseason national rankings, Barnes is 16th at 141, Heistand is second at 149, Cole Price is 17th at 157, Weimer is 19th at 174, Brandt is 16th at 184 and Keehn is 14th at 197. A Beatrice, Neb., native, Keehn put himself on the national radar last season when he won six matches at the Missouri Valley Invite. That tournament served as a breakthrough from a team perspective as the Bulldogs placed sixth out of 53 NAIA programs.
At 133, Ruff is a newcomer to watch. This past 2024-25 season, Ruff went 8-3 while competing for NCAA Division II University of Central Missouri. Ruff and Carey possess the ability to crack the NAIA rankings this season as they get acclimated with their new surroundings. As Watts said of the group of newcomers, “I think they complement our team well and fit in well with the dynamic on the roster.”
The talent level and progress made this preseason have convinced Weimer that Concordia can crash the top 10 of the national team standings come March of 2026. Says Weimer, “We’re stacked. We are stacked. I’m so excited for this year. We just keep getting better and better. We added Paul Ruff and have Gabe Kant coming in at heavyweight and Cannon Carey at 165. The list goes on and on. Every single year we get better. The room gets deeper, and it’s just a bunch of competition all around, not to mention the guys we already had last year. It’s about to be a big jump.”
In other words, the Bulldogs hope to challenge the highest of highs achieved in the program’s history. The program’s best national championship team finish remains the eighth-place claim in 2016. With the conference and national tournaments several months down the road, the focus must be placed on the day to day. Watts will be there to remind his team.
“We want to see continual improvement and buy-in,” Watts said. “If we can build on what we were doing last year and see them continue to grow individually, that would be great. They’re bonding really well already as a unit. That’s good to see. I just want to see them continue to get better week to week and competition to competition. If they do that, I think we’ll be in line to accomplish the goals that they set.”
The 2025-26 campaign is slated to officially get underway at the Friends Falcon Open on Saturday, Nov. 1. The season’s first home appearance will come on Nov. 13 in a dual versus Hastings. The complete schedule can be found HERE.