Back-to-back-to-back for Central wrestling

UCO’s wrestling team won its third consecutive MIAA title after demolishing No. 3 Nebraska Kearney. The Bronchos beat the Lopers 21-13, and some of the winners for the night were Studd Morris, Shawn Streck, Nate Keim, Gabe Johnson, Ty Lucas, and Emmanuel Skillings.

For UCO, beating UNK was a huge momentbecause the Lopers were the winners of the 2021-2022 National Championship. The Bronchos fell short to them last year at the finals, so taking the MIAA title meant a lot for the program and team.

“We’ve won it three years in a row and Kearney is a huge rivalry for us in wrestling,” said Coach Todd Steidley, “Either Kearney has won our conference or we have — no other teams have ever won the conference in wrestling. It’s a heated rivalry and our guys prepared well.” Steidley, is a former national champion for Central, and is searching to take a national title this year. The first step to making it to the tournament was to win the MIAA title. Now it is time for the team to pave their way to the National Cham- pionship, and Central’s team is different from others.

“Our guys are really close,” Steidley said. “We stress family and we stress Broncho wrestling family. We’ve been fortunate, we’ve got some wonderful guys that encourage and support each other a lot.”

The Central wrestling team is preparing to host the NCAA Division II Super Regionals on February 26. The Top 3 placers will be qualifiers for the Division II Wrestling Championship in March in Iowa.

“It’s always great to be home for important events,” Steidley said. “I’m excited to see how the guys perform. We want to qualify as many guys as we can for nationals. We want to make UCO proud, and our state and community proud.”