SIOUX CITY, Iowa – Concordia University, Nebraska Wrestling went a combined 9-1 in the back half of its lineup on Tuesday (Nov. 25) while winning both of its matchups at GPAC Day of Duals No. 1. Morningside hosted the event, which featured all nine GPAC wrestling programs. The Bulldogs emerged from Sioux City, Iowa, with wins by scores of 27-13 over Briar Cliff and 32-16 over Waldorf. Concordia won 12 total matches on the day.
Head Coach Josh Watts’ squad has improved to 3-1 in conference duals. The Bulldogs, who also own a victory over Hastings, are still working to hit their stride and put the complete picture together.
“We need to finish matches better,” Watts said. “We seem to have 20-to-30 second mental lapses. We need to put together a full seven minutes, but we’re making progress. We had some guys get a little dinged up and so we juggled the lineup the second dual a little bit. The upper weights definitely came through. We’ll get healthy over Thanksgiving break and get ready for the Doane Open.”
In both duals, 165-pounder Cole Price turned the tide in favor of Concordia. The clash with Briar Cliff was tied, 13-13, after seven matches and Waldorf jetted out to a 16-3 advantage after the first five matches. A returning national qualifier, Price earned an 11-1 major decision over Briar Cliff’s Brandon Harris and later pinned Waldorf’s Ronald Hooten at the 3:44 mark. The La Vista, Neb., native Price has won with bonus points in each of his four GPAC dual matches so far this season.
Other Concordia winners over their Charger counterparts were Gabe Lujan (forfeit at 125), Cal Price (6-3 decision at 141), Hunter Weimer (19-0 technical fall at 184), Torrance Keehn (9-6 decision at 197) and Gabe Kant (forfeit at 285). A fifth-year Bulldog from Porterville, Calif., Weimer scored 12 back points and two takedowns in his dominant victory, which marked the 50th of his collegiate career. Meanwhile, Keehn is a perfect 3-0 on the season.
To cap the night in Sioux City, Concordia won at 133 via a 9-7 decision from Grant Wells before triumphing in each of the final five bouts versus Waldorf. Price started the dominoes that continued with wins from Cannon Carey (20-4 technical fall at 174), Blane Boehmer (pin at 184), Barret Brandt (pin at 197) and Kant (forfeit at 285). It was an easy 2-0 day for Kant, who simply walked onto the mat twice to have his arm raised. As for Brandt, he ran his career pin count to 37. Waldorf had built its lead to 16-3 after a pin by Dalton Thorson at 165.
Watts used 15 different competitors over the two conference duals. Ten of them came away with at least one win. Though he did not pull off the win, sophomore Aaron Ohnoutka gave NAIA 10th-ranked Dante Rigal of Briar Cliff a tight match at 133 pounds. Rigal held off Ohnoutka, 9-7.
Added Watts in closing of the team overall, “We’ve got to stop waiting for things to go wrong. It seems like we start off well and then the guys get tight trying to hang onto the lead instead of continuing to build the lead. We’ve got to stick with an aggressive offensive mindset.”
The Bulldogs will resume the season in the month of December with the Doane University Open slated for Saturday, Dec. 6 in Crete. Wrestling is scheduled to get underway at 9 a.m. CT. The event will mark the fourth tournament of the 2025-26 season for Concordia.