No. 8 Concordia Wrestling Extends GPAC Winning Streak to 11
by Garrett Suchanek
Saturday evening the No. 8 Concordia Bulldog wrestling team posted its eleventh straight GPAC dual win by defeating Northwestern College 30-16. The Bulldogs now sit at 9-4 overall and 4-0 in GPAC.
Despite winning the match by 14 points, the Bulldogs had their hands full all day. The Red Raider’s Austin Boles pinned junior Dmitri Smith to open the day and give Northwestern a 6-0 lead. After dropping the opening match, Concordia rattled off five straight victories, two by decisions, two by technical falls and one by major decision to give the Bulldogs a 20-6 advantage.
The next two matches were won by the Red Raiders to close the gap to 20-16. However, the Bulldogs collected a pair of wins in the last two matches of the day to clinch their eleventh straight GPAC dual win. Junior Ken Burkhardt Jr. (197 weight class) won by major decision 11-2, while junior Ceron Francisco (heavyweight) polished the match off with a win by pin fall in 2:59.
Five other Bulldogs collected wins on the day. Junior Kodie Cole won by a 4-0 decision (133 weight class), junior Andrew Schulte extended his win streak to 14 with a 20-2 tech. fall win (141 weight class), junior Foster Bunce won by major decision 19-8 (149 weight class), senior Jr. Lule won by tech. fall 16-1 (157 weight class) and junior Tommy Bailey won by a 7-2 decision (165 weight class).
Concordia’s next action will be in Sioux City, Iowa, against Briar Cliff at 7 p.m. on Jan. 26.
