SEWARD, Neb. – Concordia Athletics continues to rank among the top all-around athletic departments in the Great Plains Athletic Conference. In the final 2022-23 GPAC All-Sports Trophy Standings released on Monday (May 15) by the conference, Concordia University Nebraska landed at No. 2. This marks the seventh time in the past eight years that the Bulldogs have placed either first or second in the GPAC All-Sports Standings. Concordia has won the trophy four times (2003, 2005, 2015 and 2022).
Director of Athletics Devin Smith presides over a department that totaled a combined 11 top-four GPAC regular season placements in 2022-23. Coach Matt Beisel’s Bulldog Women’s Track & Field program continued its conference supremacy with a sweep of GPAC indoor and outdoor titles. Back in the fall, Coach Jason Weides’ men’s soccer team placed second during the regular season and then won the GPAC tournament title. Conference runner-up claims were also made this past year by baseball and men’s cross country.
Concordia teams that placed fourth or better in 2022-23 (regular season):
· Women’s Indoor Track & Field – 1st
· Women’s Outdoor Track & Field – 1st
· Baseball – 2nd
· Men’s Cross Country – 2nd
· Men’s Soccer – 2nd
· Cheer – 3rd
· Women's Cross Country – 3rd
· Volleyball – 3rd
· Wrestling – 3rd
· Men’s Tennis – 4th
· Women’s Tennis – 4th
The GPAC standings were also broken down into separate men’s and women’s rankings. Concordia Athletics tied Dordt for first in the GPAC men’s standings and ranked second in the GPAC women’s standings. The GPAC All-Sports Standings are compiled by taking the possible points available divided by total points earned in the conference.
Major GPAC individual awards in 2022-23 went to Bulldog athletes in Emery Custer (GPAC Women’s Golf Newcomer of the Year), Joey Grabanski (GPAC Baseball Player of the Year), Ashley Keck (GPAC Volleyball Freshman of the Year) and Adrianna Rodencal (GPAC Women’s Track & Field Indoor/Outdoor Athlete of the Year). Beisel was recognized as the GPAC Women’s Track & Field Coach of the Year for indoor and outdoor.
Success at the conference level has carried over to the national stage. In 2022-23, Concordia has qualified teams/athletes for national championships in the sports of baseball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, men’s and women’s cross country, men’s soccer, men’s indoor and outdoor track & field, women’s indoor and outdoor track & field, volleyball, wrestling, shooting sports and powerlifting/weightlifting. Though not a GPAC sport, the shooting sports program placed third in the Prairie Circuit Conference.
Concordia all-time GPAC All-Sports Trophy finishes
2022-23 – 2nd
2021-22 – 1st
2020-21 – 2nd
2019-20 – No standings (Concordia was in first place after winter sports were completed)
2018-19 – 2nd
2017-18 – 6th
2016-17 – 2nd
2015-16 – 2nd
2014-15 – 1st
2013-14 – 4th
2012-13 – 6th
2011-12 – 4th
2010-11 – 7th
2009-10 – 6th
2008-09 – 6th
2007-08 – 5th
2006-07 – 5th
2005-06 – 5th
2004-05 – 1st
2003-04 – 3rd
2002-03 – 1st
2001-02 – 2nd
2000-01 – 3rd