Wrestling dominates in Crete at GPAC day of duals
By Ransom Watts
No. 16 Concordia wrestling showed promise in Crete this weekend for the upcoming Great Plains Athletic Conference championships in a dominant performance over Northwestern, Morningside and Dakota Wesleyan University.
The team seemed unstoppable this weekend in three dual meets at Doane University. The Bulldogs faced off against the Northwestern Red Raiders, Morningside Mustangs and the Dakota Wesleyan University Tigers, where they seemingly eased their way through matches against the opposing teams.
In the matchup with Northwestern, the Bulldogs won 9-10 matches, coming away with 42 points to Northwestern’s five.
The last four Bulldog wrestlers won via fall or forfeit. Those were sophomore Evan Sepanlou at 174 lbs, junior Barret Brandt at 184 lbs, senior Torrance Keehn at 197 lbs and senior Jeremiah Vasquez at heavyweight. Junior Cannon Carey at 165 lbs rounded out the last five with a tech fall.
Against Morningside, Concordia was relentless and defeated the Mustangs 32-6. Much of what contributed to that margin was the wins Concordia racked up by technical fall across all weight divisions. Some highlight matches came from sophomore Gabe Lujan, senior Bryce Karlin, senior Cole Price, junior Gabe Kant and senior Hagen Heistand. Each of these competitors ate up points from the Mustangs, keeping them to single digits.
Other bulldogs, while less dominant in their matches, nevertheless put up strong performances that helped Concordia win more matches. Senior Paul Ruff of the 133 lbs division and Keehn both added to the Bulldog’s points with decision wins against Morningside.
In their next competition against Dakota Wesleyan, not much changed for the Bulldogs, who won 32-16 over the Tigers. Again, Lujan in the 125 lbs division and Heistand in the 157 lbs division were integral to the Bulldogs success and won by fall or tech fall over their opponents. Ruff again contributed to the score with another decision win.
By all accounts, Concordia looked to be undefeatable against both teams. Against Morningside, they came away with wins in eight out of 10 matches and nearly matched that number against Dakota Wesleyan, where they came out on top in seven out of 10 matches.
With the Great Plains Athletic Conference Wrestling Championships looming on Feb. 20, it’s worth considering Concordia wrestling’s preseason GPAC rankings. Concordia was projected to be No. 3 in preseason rankings behind Morningside. The Bulldogs undoubtedly defied those expectations this weekend and throughout the season as they sit 8-1 in dual competitions, the only loss coming to national No. 11 Doane, and will look forward to the GPAC Championships in two weeks, where the team hopes to come home with a GPAC title.
