Bulldog powerlifting team breaks records, looks to nationals

Teya Badger competes at last semester’s CUNE Collegiate Powerlifting Meet.

Photo credit: Concordia Athletics

By Kai Olbrich

Sports Editor

This story is featured in the January print edition of the Sower newspaper. 

After a record-breaking fall season, the Bulldog powerlifting team is aiming higher than they ever have, with multiple national championship hopes, a men’s banner and a women’s podium finish.

Spring 2025 was a season of growth for the powerlifting program, as Rylee Ladd was crowned Concordia’s first individual national champion. The women’s team achieved fifth as a team, and the men placed 14th. They picked right back up in the fall with 12 athletes breaking a school record in one or more of the three lifts: squat, deadlift and bench press, or combined weight at the Central Collegiate Cup Series.

Powerlifting does not have divisions like the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics or the National Collegiate Athletics Association. Instead, all colleges and universities compete against each other at the national meet.

Leo Guiza. Photo: Concordia Athletics.

Coach Freddie Myles was happy with the work done before the season started.

“I thought everyone performed well,” he said. “The returners did a good job of doing their workouts over the summer, and so they came in shape, and then were able to build off that and have really good results at that.”

Two other records that were broken were the Concordia men’s and women’s DOTS scores. The DOTS score is used to compare athletes across weight classes by adding together all three lifts and putting it in perspective of an athlete’s weight.

Junior Leo Guiza achieved a score of 476 and was the first Bulldog athlete to lift a combined 800 kilograms in a single meet. Senior Taylor Hedke set a program record of 490.09 on the DOTS scale. Myles said that Hedke’s feat was all the more impressive given that the previous record holder was national champion Ladd.

With the success flooding into the program, coaches and athletes are excited about the prospects individually and as a team as they prepare for Collegiate Powerlifting Nationals April 9-12 in Kenner, Louisiana.

“So top five is what they award for nationals. I think both teams are capable of that,” Myles said. “I would like the women to improve on their fifth place from last year. The men are a little bit under the radar, because two of our highest DOTS getters on the team did not do the CC Cup. So, we’re a little bit off. I think we’re gonna surprise because of that.”

Additionally, senior Katie Wilson is hoping her women’s squad can make some noise on the national stage and push for a podium position.
“We’ve been focusing on growing and our training, really putting on the weight, seeing what we can do and getting stronger and we’ve set goals,” Wilson said. “We’re hoping top three. There’s Midland out there. They are a really tough competitor, and there’s a few other schools that we’re right neck and neck with, so it would be really cool to get up into second place or even give Midland a run.”

Wilson holds the school record for squat, bench, deadlift and total in the 48kg class, and is looking forward to competing at her first nationals.

Myles has five athletes who he believes have a very real possibility of challenging for a title.

“So, there are three men that have a really good shot of medaling. Leo, [sophomore] Wyatt [Hosick] and [junior] Will Peterson,” Myles said.

“And then on the women’s side, Taylor and Teya [Badger] are very strong for medals. Both medaled last year as well. But then we have a lot that should pick up good points in there, too.”

Hosick placed fourth at nationals in 2025 and believes this year is one that can bring home more hardware for himself and his team.

“My goal for this year is to definitely improve on my placement. I want to win obviously, but a top three would not be upsetting either,” Hosick said. “As a team, I definitely think we have a good chance as a men’s team to get into the top five. We had a couple of guys who didn’t compete last year that would have made an impact, also the improvement amongst the other guys has been incredible, and I believe we can bring home a banner in April.”

To get there, however, Myles knows that the journey is not glamorous and that his athletes will need to do the dirty work now to reap the benefits come nationals.

“Powerlifting is a practice-based sport, so you do lots and lots of practicing at your skills and way less competing than almost every other sport on campus here,” Myles said. “So basically they [powerlifters] go from a period where they’re doing a lot of a huge volume of work, and the intensity is not quite as high, and as we get closer to nationals, the overall volume of work will get a little bit less, and the intensity will get a little bit higher.”

A limited number of athletes will compete at the Nebraska State Powerlifting Meet on Jan. 31 through Feb. 1, but for the majority of the team, nationals in April is the next stop for competition.