FREMONT, Neb. – The No. 8 Concordia wrestling team defeated both No. 12 Midland, 33-10 and (RV) Dakota Wesleyan, 49-0 in a GPAC triangular on Tuesday, Nov. 17. Sophomore Andrew Schulte won both of his matches by pins.
Head coach Dana Vote said, “The guys wrestled well tonight. I am really happy with the way Trey (Travian) Cooke wrestled, he took the number one guy in the nation down to the wire. We are not where we want to be yet but I feel like we are on track.”
The Bulldogs own a dual record of 3-0, 2-0 GPAC this season and are off to a similar start of last season’s perfect conference record of 7-0. (RV) Dakota Wesleyan falls to 0-4, 0-3 GPAC. After defeating Dakota Wesleyan and losing to Concordia, Midland moves to 1-3, 1-1 GPAC.
In the dual against Dakota Wesleyan, four Bulldogs won by a pin, all in the first period. Against Midland, second-ranked team in the GPAC, two more matches were decided by a pin.
Schulte pinned Brandon Scharmer of Dakota Wesleyan 1:52 into the first and Luis Sifuentes of Midland 1:46 into the first period to help the Bulldogs to a 2-0 finish in Fremont. Cooke, a freshman for Concordia, battled with the first-ranked wrestler in the country at the 174 weight class, Tyler McMichael of Midland. Cooke took McMichael to the end of the match but was defeated, 2-3.
Tommy Bailey, Ken Burkhardt Jr. and Ceron Francisco also pinned their opponents from Dakota Wesleyan while Matt Atwood pinned his foe from Midland.
The Concordia wrestling team will return to action on Saturday, Nov. 21. Vote’s squad will Kearney, Neb. for the UNK Holiday Inn Open, starting at 9 a.m.