SEWARD, Neb. – Head Coach Josh Watt’s Concordia University, Nebraska Wrestling team is now six tournaments and five duals deep into the 2024-25 season. The Bulldogs are fresh off the Roger Denker Open that saw ten Bulldogs combine for 13 wins on Sunday. Coming up next, Concordia will take part in an annual showcase for NAIA wrestling, the Missouri Valley Invitational. The tournament will run Friday and Saturday inside the Burns Athletic Complex in Marshall, Mo.
Missouri Valley Invitational
--Jan. 24-25 | Day 1 – 12 p.m., Day 2 – 10 a.m.
--Burns Athletic Complex (Marshall, Mo.)
--Live Coverage: Results | Video (Flo Wrestling)
Watts’ squad has received a boost with the addition of NCAA Division I Campbell University transfer Hagen Heistand. The junior from Dow City, Iowa, dominated the 149-pound bracket at the Denker Open in Warrensburg, Mo., going 5-0 with each win coming with bonus points. Heistand pinned two of his opponents and wiped out two more via technical fall. Other Bulldog place finishers at the Denker Open were Teegan Tschampel (fourth at 197) and Jeremiah Vasquez (sixth at 285). Of the 10 Concordia competitors who traveled to Warrensburg, six came away with at least one victory.
New sets of conference and NAIA national ratings were unveiled on Jan. 14 and 16, respectively. From a team perspective, the Bulldogs are ranked second in the GPAC (behind only Doane) and are only four spots outside of the official NAIA top 25 ratings. Individually, Concordia boasts 12 ranked wrestlers at the conference level (top six of weight class). In the NAIA national ratings, the following Bulldogs appeared: Creighton Baughman (seventh at 141), Steven Barnes (18th at 149), Cole Price (25th at 157), Tommy Wentz (23rd at 165) and Barret Brandt (24th at 174).
Concordia standouts with at least 10 wins on the season include Barnes (14-6), Baughman (12-1), Brandt (12-4), Cole Price (12-6), Heistand (10-1) and Simon Arredondo (10-9). The Bulldogs have won a combined seven individual tournament titles (from seven different wrestlers) thus far. Those titles have come from:
· Steven Barnes – Luther Hill Invite 149-pound champion
· Creighton Baughman – Oppenheim Open (Doane) 141-pound champion
· Hagen Heistand – Denker Open 157-pound champion
· Bryce Karlin – Luther Hill Invite 133-pound champion
· Torrance Keehn – Hastings Open 197-pound champion
· Hunter Weimer – Hastings Open 184-pound champion
· Tommy Wentz – Luther Hill Invite 165-pound champion
According to Track Wrestling, 55 NAIA men’s wrestling programs are slated to be included in the two-day Missouri Valley Invite, which is a rare regular season tournament that features final team standings. Each team is allowed to enter up to 12 of its top wrestlers, mimicking a postseason event. The action in Marshall is scheduled to get underway at 12 p.m. CT on Friday before resuming at 10 a.m. on Saturday.
Bulldogs in the Rankings
133 – Grant Wells: 4th in GPAC
133 – Bryce Karlin: 6th in GPAC
141 – Creighton Baughman: 1st in GPAC | 7th in NAIA
141 – Cal Price: 4th in GPAC
149 – Hagen Heistand: 2nd in GPAC
149 – Steven Barnes: 3rd in GPAC | 18th in NAIA
157 – Cole Price: 2nd in GPAC | 25th in NAIA
165 – Tommy Wentz: 3rd in GPAC | 23rd in NAIA
174 – Barret Brandt: 3rd in GPAC | 24th in NAIA
184 – Hunter Weimer: 3rd in GPAC
197 – Torrance Keehn: 5th in GPAC
285 – Mason Garcia: 6th in GPAC
Following the Missouri Valley Invite, the Bulldogs will look ahead to the Golden Norseman Open hosted by Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College on Feb. 1. That particular tournament, located in Miami, Okla., will be the final one prior to the 2025 GPAC Wrestling Championships (Feb. 21-22).