Acuna's Podium Finish Leads Cobbers In Illinois
First-Year athlete Chris Acuna led Concordia at the prestigious Pete Willson Invite hosted by Wheaton (Ill.). Acuna went 4-2 over the two days and finished seventh in the 157-lb weight division.
WHEATON, Ill. (1/31/26)---Concordia participated in its first long-distance multi-team invitational since the very start of the season and came away with several quality performances at the prestigious Pete Willson Invite hosted by Wheaton College.
First-Year athlete Chris Acuna led the way as he posted the only podium finish for the Cobbers. He went 4-2 over the two days and placed seventh in the 157-lb weight class.
Acuna's Top 8 finish helped Concordia finish 19th in the final team standings in the 29-team tournament. The 19th-place finish is two spots higher than last year's team spot at the invite.
Acuna bounced back from an opening‑round decision loss to reel off four straight wins in the consolation bracket. He posted a major decision, a tie‑breaker victory, and a 10–7 decision to reach the placement rounds.
Acuna had a back-and-forth bout in his first match on Saturday but eventually lost a 7-2 decision to No.13-ranked AJ Parrish of Cornell (Iowa). Acuna capped his tournament with a dramatic 12–10 win in overtime in the 7th‑place match to secure his spot on the podium.
Acuna is now 19-7 on the year with his 19 victories tops among all Cobber wrestlers.
Senior Will Freking put together one of Concordia's strongest bonus‑point performances of the weekend as he earned three pins in the 197-lb division. Freking opened the tournament with a pin in the first period fall but lost 5-2 in the second round of the championship bracket.
Freking added two more pins in the consolation bracket. He recorded another first-round pin to open the consolation side of the bracket and backed that up with a pin in the 57-second mark of the second period.
Freking eventually advanced to the fourth round on the consolation side and bowed out with a 4-1 decision.
Freking's 3-2 record move his season win total to 12 and he becomes the seventh CC wrestler to post a double-digit win total.
Like Freking, No.13-ranked Mason Swanson won his first match in Illinois, won two straight on the consolation side and lost in the fourth rounds of the bracket.
Swanson opened with a 17-0 tech fall victory and also came away with a pair of major-decision wins.
Swanson is now 12-6 on the season.
At 133, Kie Anderson earned a bye in the first round to reach the Round of 16. He lost a heartbreaking decision in overtime but responded with back-to-back bonus point wins in the consolation bracket before falling in sudden victory in Round 4.
Anderson's two wins up his season total to 16.
The hard luck story of the invite belonged to senior Aidan Ruddy who came up with the biggest win of the two days for CC as he beat No.13-ranked Luke Kamish of Wis.-Plateville 5-2 in the opening match at 149.
Unfortunately Ruddy's tournament would end there as he had to step aside in his next two matches due to an injury.
The contingent of Concordia wrestlers who didn't go to Illinois will wrestle at the Northland CC Open on Sunday, Feb. 1 at 10:30 a.m. The Cobbers will then host its Cobber Last Shot Invite on Saturday, Feb. 7.