Head Coach: Dylan Owens (2nd year)
2023 National Finishes: 3rd in Prairie Circuit Conference; 3rd in NCSSAA Division IV (out of 11 teams)
2022-23 Team Highlights: There were plenty more performances that stood out. In addition to his HOA national championship, Wyatt Hambly won the men’s sporting clay national title and placed third in men’s trap. Additionally, Sam Blevins was the men’s skeet national champion while places finishes of second and third, respectively, were claimed by Abby Keppelin and Claire Kee in women’s skeet. Kee took home the women’s doubles skeet national title. In women’s trap doubles, Katelyn Welker and Angie Wolfert placed second and third, respectively, in the nation. As a team, Head Coach Dylan Owens’ Bulldogs placed third out of 11 teams in the Division IV breakdown of the NCSSAA National Championships. Other top-three team placements throughout the year included finishes of second at the Fort Hays State Intercollegiate Shoot, second place at the Midland Warrior Open, third place at the Prairie Circuit Conference Championships and third place at the NCSSAA Central Regional Qualifier. At the Prairie Circuit Conference Championships, six Bulldogs earned all-conference awards, including Kee, Breyer Meeks, Tanner Muff, Wolfert, Welker and Kaylee Hinton. In his first year leading the program, Owens helped Concordia remain at a high level on the national landscape.
2023-24 Outlook
The sixth year of Concordia Shooting Sports as an official varsity athletic program is coming up in 2023-24. This past season, Dylan Owens became the third head coach to lead a Bulldog program that has established itself as a major player both regionally and nationally. Owens and the Concordia athletes say they have grown stronger and closer together through the tragic circumstances that have hit the program. Since November 2021, the Bulldogs have lost a head coach (Scott Moniot) and a teammate.
In traveling to Las Vegas for the 2023 NCSSAA National Championships, Concordia Shooting Sports honored their memories with strong performances. Now the Wartburg College head coach, Wyatt Hambly won the 2023 HOA individual national championship as the Bulldogs placed third nationally in the Division IV breakdown of the event. Owens and company hope it will be a springboard to even higher achievement in the years to come.
“Very proud,” Owens said in detailing how his team has responded to adversity. “I may have even cried a little bit at nationals with not only how some individuals finished but with how the team fought. Honestly, it’s indescribable. We had a lot of parents come to nationals, which was great to see. The parents were so happy to see how everyone was doing and how well it went.”
The 2022-23 team also wound up placing third at the Prairie Circuit Conference Championships. In conference action, and throughout fall and spring competitions, Concordia routinely went head-to-head fellow perennially strong programs such as Fort Hays State University (Kan.), Midland and William Penn University (Iowa). When the bullets stopped flying, four Bulldogs garnered All-America status: Sam Blevins, Hambly, Tanner Muff and Katelyn Welker. Blevins and Welker return to this year’s team. So too does a strong senior class including Ames Andelt, Blevins, Jessie Ciezki, Claire Kee, Breyer Meeks, Wayne Moore and Jack Nelson.
As for Meeks, he shined at the 2022 Prairie Circuit outing with a team best HOA of 369 with a 97 in trap. He earned all-conference accolades alongside Kee. In addition, three returning Concordia shooters collected all-conference freshman accolades: Kaylee Hinton, Welker and Angeline Wolfert. A native of Filer, Idaho, Meeks shot a 99 in trap at the national championships. As a senior, Meeks knows exactly what this program has been through and what it’s capable of moving forward. It’s not just about how many targets are knocked out.
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned from this team and shooting sports so far, it’s that there’s a lot more to life than just what the score says on the paper,” Meeks said. “That’s such a little part of it. Coming into it, that’s all I was focused on, but being able to learn, grow and get to know everyone on the team has been absolutely incredible. We just continue to grow every day.”
Added the Gibbon, Neb., native Kee, “Every time something happens, no matter if it’s in our team or someone’s family, we always stick together. We always show up in support. We’re a very close team. I think what we went through, it bonded us together and also showed us how we thought as an individual people.”
Within the roster are a wide range of skills over the various disciplines. While Hambly won the HOA national title and placed first in men’s sporting clays, Kee took home a championship in women’s doubles skeet and Blevins seized the men’s skeet title with a perfect 100. Outside of official collegiate action, Blevins, Nelson and Haley Schmutzer each competed at the 2023 Spring Selection Match sponsored by USA Shooting in Tucson, Ariz. From a team perspective, Concordia placed third or better at five separate events and continued rewriting the school record book.
Twenty-two Bulldogs competed at the national championships this past spring. For Owens, the tangible goal is quite simple: to qualify as many individuals as possible for the 2024 ACUI National Championships. So far, Owens likes the attitude he sees within the team, which welcomed seven freshmen into the program. The list of upperclassmen includes juniors Devin Harris, Schmutzer, Brennen Stones, Buchannan Tietjen and Cael Washburn.
“We had our first team workout on Aug. 29,” Owens said. “It was good to see everyone there for that. The energy at our first meeting was really positive. Everyone seemed excited to get out and start practicing. The team connection was really good, even with the freshmen. They’re really interacting very well together. Everyone is doing really well, especially with some of them not being able to shoot a lot over the summer. Having them come in and do as well as they are is really good to see.”
The third-place national team finish last season was the highest ever for the program. It will be back to San Antonio, Texas, for nationals this coming spring. The Bulldogs have a barometer from which to build upon.
“It signifies a culmination of not only what Scott was doing before his passing but also showed we have individuals who just want to win,” Owens said of the competitiveness level of the program. “It’s a great thing to experience. Everyone is stepping up. The amount of work the team put in was awesome, particularly with sporting clays. That was something we really wanted to focus in on. We saw a lot of improvement in those scores. That saw us push even further to tie for second (at nationals). It was great to see individuals step up. Claire won doubles skeet and Sam Blevins won the shoot-off for the national championship in skeet. Wyatt Hambly won the HOA at nationals. It’s truly great to experience as a first-year coach but also sets a really high bar.”
The 2023-24 schedule features seven events in the fall and three in the spring. The action will get started on Sept. 9-10 with the Fort Hays State University Intercollegiate Shoot. The Prairie Circuit Conference Championships will take place Sept. 29-Oct. 1 and the eighth annual Concordia Bulldog Sporting Invitational is slated for Oct. 21-22 from Oak Creek Sporting Club. Seven of the 10 events will be staged in the state of Nebraska, two will be held in Texas and one will go off in Kansas.
The expectation will be for Concordia to compete near the top of the team standings each time out. The Bulldogs are embracing the expectations as they aim to take another step up the ladder at nationals.
“I’d like to see us place one or two at conference,” Meeks said. “We lost a couple really good athletes but everyone else in our conference did as well. It’s going to be neck and neck this year. It’s going to be whoever wants it more and is able to put up the numbers. I’d also like to see everyone get along and keep the relationships going on the team that we have. I’d like to see that continue throughout the year.”
“For me personally, it’s about continuing to improve in everything that I can,” Kee said. “For the team, I think we’re all very competitive, so we always want to improve throughout the year. One of the goals would be to do better than third at nationals this year.”
The 2023-24 Concordia Shooting Sports schedule can be found HERE.