SEWARD, Neb. – By the time the dust settled on the 2024 GPAC Wrestling Championships hosted in Friedrich Arena, the Concordia University Wrestling program had claimed three individual automatic bids to the national tournament. Creighton Baughman (141), Mason Garcia (197) and Tommy Wentz (165) booked their trips to Park City, Kan., while helping the Bulldogs place fifth in the conference as a team. The 2024 conference tournament played out Friday and Saturday (Feb. 16-17) in Seward and featured the GPAC’s nine programs that sponsor men’s wrestling.
GPAC Championships Place Finishes:
· *Creighton Baughman – 2nd (141)
· *Tommy Wentz – 2nd (165)
· *Mason Garcia – 3rd (197)
· Barret Brandt – 4th (165)
*Automatic national qualifier
Head Coach Chase Clasen’s squad tallied 73 team points over the two days. Four Concordia competitors wound up placing inside the top four of their respective weight classes, including GPAC runners up Baughman and Wentz.
“It’s always good to get a few guys to nationals,” Clasen said. “I’m devastated for our guys who had heartbreaking matches today. There were a number of matches we were winning and ended up getting caught. My heart breaks for them, but they’ve done a tremendous amount of work for this program. I really can’t thank them enough. My thoughts are with the seniors. It’s great to have some qualifiers, and you always wish you had a few more.”
While Baughman was an expected national qualifier for the Bulldogs, Garcia and Wentz needed to outperform the conference seedings if they were to earn spots at the national tournament. The Fremont, Neb., native Wentz had not appeared in a match since December prior to the start of the GPAC tournament. His path to the 165-pound title match included wins over Midland’s Trey McDouglad (technical fall), Morningside’s Caden Eggleston (decision) and NAIA No. 17 Zander Ernst (pin) of Morningside. Wentz then dropped a tight decision, 4-2, to 20th-ranked Kaleb Bigelow of Dakota Wesleyan for the title.
The pin of the GPAC’s top seed Ernst will be an achievement Wentz will never forget. “I had to deal with a lot of adversity this season,” Wentz said. “I hadn’t wrestled since before Christmas break. I came out here knowing some people may be tired. I looked at it as an advantage as opposed to a disadvantage. It means a lot (to go to the national tournament), but I’d like to do something at the national tournament, not just go.”
The road for Garcia to get to this point has had twists and turns, but the talent has been there for the Arroyo Grande, Calif., native. He put it together this weekend while defeating DWU’s Colten Hink (major decision), Northwestern’s Kaleb Lind (pin), Briar Cliff’s Christian Balmer (pin) and Jamestown’s NAIA 22nd-ranked Jake Rau (pin). The lone defeat came at the hands of 197-pound GPAC champion Bradley Antesberger of Doane. In a weight class featuring three auto bids to nationals, Garcia secured his spot with the pin of Rau in 1:54.
“I was pretty stoked,” Garcia said. “It’s been a long journey and I’ve finally made it to nationals. It was really special. My whole family came out from California to see that moment. I’m really thankful to my coaches and teammates.”
The Papillion, Neb., senior Baughman reached the GPAC’s 141-pound championship match for the second-straight season. Baughman (31-6) collected two pins on Friday and then edged DWU’s Aric Williams, 5-4, in the semifinals. That result set up a showdown between No. 8 Baughman and No. 19 Taylor Vasquez of Morningside. One takedown was the difference as Vazquez earned the title, 4-2. Baughman came up short of one of his goals, but he’ll regroup and resolve to go deep into the national tournament.
“Silver wasn’t the plan, but ultimately I punched my ticket,” Baughman said. “That’s all that matters. I’ll sharpen some things up and really dial in these next couple of weeks and take advantage of everything I can to make the most of nationals.”
Concordia started Saturday morning with four semifinalists and another six competitors still alive on the back side of their brackets. A semifinalist on the opposite side of the 165-pound bracket as Wentz, freshman Barret Brandt very nearly made it an all-Concordia final in that weight class. In the semis, Brandt trailed Bigelow by a 9-2 score before rallying to knot it while coming within an eyelash of yet another pin. He ultimately dropped a 12-9 decision and wound up in fourth place. Brandt recorded two pins at the GPAC tournament and pushed his school record total to 24.
Other Bulldogs who appeared at the GPAC tournament on Saturday were Grant Wells (133), TJ Allen (149), Jeaven Scdoris (157), Stephen Duffy (174), Hunter Weimer (184) and Clayton Laabs (285). Among them, Allen, Weimer and Laabs claimed one GPAC tournament win apiece. The seniors who finished their careers this weekend included Allen, Duffy, Laabs and Scdoris. Clasen expressed gratitude for the seniors following the tournament.
Wild card selections from the GPAC are pending as Baughman, Garcia and Wentz now gear up for trips to the national stage. Their performances supplied the biggest weekend thrills as Concordia got one last opportunity this season to compete inside Friedrich Arena.
Said Clasen, “With Tommy pinning the No. 1 seed, that was awesome. That’s huge for him. He’s one of those guys who last year lost to his teammate to be able to go to nationals and didn’t get a wild card. It feels right that he gets this chance now. Mason is a guy who has an impressive body of work throughout the course of this season. He’s beaten two ranked guys. We were pretty shocked that he didn’t have a ranking, so him qualifying shows where he’s at. We’re not surprised he’s going to nationals.”
Official national qualifiers will be announced by the NAIA next week. The qualifiers will be headed to Park City, Kan., for the 2024 NAIA Men’s Wrestling National Championships Feb. 29 – March 2. For more details on the event, visit NAIA.org.