Concordia wrestling team begins Thanksgiving break on a high note with victory against Hastings
Photo description: Senior Stephen Duffy goes head-to-head with his opponent
Photo credit: Bailey Mooney
Maddy Peters
Sports Editor
The Concordia wrestling team destroyed the Hastings College Broncos 41-9 Friday evening in a pre-Thanksgiving match in Seward.
The Bulldogs had an incredible five pins for the night and won eight out of the 10 matches for the night.
Freshman Aidan Trowbridge was the 125-pound wrestler for the Bulldogs. He struggled to stay on his feet and reverse his opponent’s takedowns, losing with a score of 9-3 and giving Hastings three points to start the dual.
Sophomore Grant Wells was the second bout of the night for the 133 weight class. He won by a technical fall outscoring his opponent 20-4 in the third period.
Senior Creighton Baughman’s match for the 141 weight class lasted 1:13 as he swiftly pinned his opponent giving Concordia six more points and a solid lead over the Broncos.
Junior Tracy Allen for the 149 division narrowly won his match by decision. He overcame Hastings’ Jack Morton by one point to win 5-4 and added three to the team score.
Fellow junior Brent Ward for the 157 class was the other loser of the night, getting pinned in the first period by Bronco Jake Patterson giving Hastings its last six points.
Junior Tommy Wentz battled in the 165 weight class and scored another pin for the team making the score 20-9 in Concordia’s favor.
Senior Stephen Duffy won his 174 class bout by decision in a close match going scoreless till the third period. He finally managed to get on the board with a takedown and an escape giving him the win 4-0 and another three points for the team.
Juniors Hunter Weimer (184) and Mason Garcia (197) and sophomore Cy Renny (285) each won with a pin and sealed the win for the Bulldogs. Renny’s pin was almost as fast as Baughman’s clocking a 1:17 long match.
Wells has had a great season so far with a second place finish at the Simpson University Luther Hill invite and being one of the few Bulldogs to score in the top 10 of the Grand View University Invite. However, he is excited for what the rest of the season has to offer.
“[The match was] really good, the score—obviously there’s mistakes, we can all work on stuff, but I think overall we’re doing really good,” Wells said. “We’ve been putting in a lot of work, we’ve been having a lot of fun and just been staying loose. We haven’t been putting too much pressure on us at first. We’re here to have a good time and we’re here to wrestle.”
With two Great Plains Athletic Conference duals completed for the year and two more coming before the end of the month, an undefeated record makes Wells hopeful for the rest of the season.
“I hope we win every match and every dual!” said Wells, “I think honestly we could do it; I think we have the guys to do it; I think we have the culture to do it, [and] obviously we have the coaching to do it.”
Wrestling is now 2-0 in GPAC duals. The team heads to Kearney on November 18 for the University of Nebraska Kearney Open with events scheduled to start at 9 a.m.
