Sower sports roundup, February 22

By Maddy Peters

Sports Editor

If you missed Concordia University Nebraska athletics this weekend, here is what happened.

The Concordia tennis teams faced the Ottawa University Braves on Feb. 21 with the women clinching a 5-2 win and the men narrowly losing 4-3. The men also faced the Quincy University Hawks and the Central College Dutch on Feb. 22. Quincy beat Concordia 6-1, but the Bulldogs beat Central 5-2. Both teams play Baker University on March 1.

The women faced a short-staffed Ottawa team allowing them to cruise to a dual victory. Concordia took the doubles point 2-1 by forfeit in the No. 2 and No. 3 match. Since there were only three singles matches, Concordia automatically won the dual. However, freshman Ishane Derman put the cherry on top in the No. 3 match with a 6-1, 2-6, 10-6 win over Ottawa’s Camryn Medina to finish out the dual. The team now has a 3-1 record.

The men’s dual against Ottawa was much more competitive with a full team of opponents. Concordia took the doubles point 2-1 to start it off. However, the Bulldogs were unable to pull off the singles wins to take the dual. No. 2 junior Nick Velders won his singles match 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 and No. 6 junior Santiago Abadia won his match 6-3, 6-0.

Against Quincy, Velders was the only Bulldog to pull off a win going 0-6, 6-4, 10-5. Concordia was able to clinch the No. 3 doubles match 6-3 with the team of Abadia and freshman Ben Chisholm. Against Central, the Bulldogs swept the doubles point with wins in the No. 1, 3, 5 and 6 singles. Junior Hugo Fuentes won the No. 1 6-0, 6-1, senior Manuel Rodriguez won the No. 3 6-1, 6-2, Abadia took the No. 5 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) and sophomore Joseph Melzer won the No. 6 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-4). The team now has a 3-4 record.

The Concordia wrestling team competed at the Great Plains Athletic Conference Championships from Feb. 21-22 in Hastings. The team finished third in the conference behind Doane University and Morningside University with 149.5 total points. Eight wrestlers have punched an auto bid to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Wrestling National Championships from March 6-8 in Park City, Kan.

The big news of the day came from senior Creighton Baughman who finally took the 141 title after being runner-up for the past two years. He had a 2:13 fall, 3:42 fall, a 15-0 tech fall and a 5-3 decision to leave him with a 24-2 record. Junior Hagen Heistand (149) and senior Cole Price (157) won second in their respective brackets. Heistand had a 18-3 tech fall, 16-8 major decision over fellow Bulldog Steven Barnes and lost the championship 3-1 in the first tiebreaker round. Price had a 1:12 fall, a 15-4 major decision, 8-2 decision, 17-1 tech fall and lost the championship in a 5-2 decision.

The other wrestlers going to the national championship are senior Hunter Weimer who placed third in the 184, Barnes who placed fourth in the 149, sophomore Barret Brandt who placed fourth in the 184, senior Mason Garcia who placed fourth in the 285 and junior Torrence Keehn who placed fifth in the 197.

The Concordia cheer and dance team traveled to Sioux Center, Iowa for the Dordt University Invitational as their last meet of the regular season. Cheer was eighth with a final score of 63.43 and dance was fifth with a score of 75.2. Concordia will host the GPAC cheer and dance championships on March 7.