On November 9, the Robert and Ann Naslund Sports and Recreation Center hosted the Luther College Open, a wrestling event that brought in roughly 700 athletes, in a record-breaking day for the program. Athletes came to the Valley from 45 colleges and universities, including representatives from NCAA Division I schools University of Iowa and Iowa State University.
During the open, nine Luther wrestlers placed in eight different weight categories, including third and fourth place finishes from Walter West (‘25) and Cullen Quick (‘25) in the Elite 285 weight classification, as well as sixth from 133-pound Connor Kidd (‘26) and fifth from 184-pound Wyatt Weter (‘28). Click here for more in-depth results.
The tops of the result pages were primarily dominated by wrestlers from larger schools including University of Iowa, Iowa State University, St. Cloud State University, Upper Iowa University and both La Crosse and Eau Claire of the University of Wisconsin system.
This was also the second year that women’s wrestling took place during the event; 200 of the wrestlers that competed on Saturday were women from a wide array of schools.
In an interview the day before the tournament, Assistant Wrestling Coach Billy Huebner expressed excitement about the potential and impact of the Luther Open on women’s wrestling.
“The Luther Open is, in my opinion, one of the best tournaments in the Midwest,” Huebner said. “[The open this year] is the biggest in the history of the tournament and the second year that women are competing as well. Soon enough, the women’s league will be big enough that we’ll have to separate their opens.”
According to Huebner, Luther is also one of only a few colleges that runs two separate tournaments for women to compete in. These events are the Luther Open and the annual Gator Boots Duals event, which Luther has hosted in various venues around Nashville, Tennessee.
Huebner also pointed to how hosting such a prominent wrestling event comes with several benefits, including advertising Luther’s program nationwide.
“Thanks to Track/Flowrestling [a website that broadcasts high school and collegiate wrestling events], I have recruits from the coasts and all across the country watching this open live, and I’ve gotten calls from recruits telling me they watched the open,” Huebner said. “It promotes the college to far-away recruits because it’s streamed nationally.”
Additionally, Huebner expressed how the Luther Open presented a one-day gold rush of opportunity for Decorah’s economy. Restaurants, stores, hotels and Airbnbs saw a boost of activity on Saturday from all the athletes and their families visiting Decorah.
“[The open] brings a lot of revenue to the community, which is awesome,” said Huebner. “This tournament helps promote Luther College and Decorah as a whole.”
The event was run by volunteers from some of Luther’s other sports teams. By volunteering, these athletes were able to help fundraise for their own teams. Wrestling team student manager Hunter Humpal (‘28) spoke to how the event went.
“The open was good, a lot of guys placed and there was a lot of competition,” Humpal said. “Everything ran smoothly. With twelve mats, things can get hectic, but it all worked out well.”
Humpal also echoed Huebner’s excitement about the future of women’s wrestling next year at Luther.
“We had girls and guys wrestle together, [and] hopefully next year, we’ll have a girls team that will wrestle there as well,” said Humpal.
There will be a women’s wrestling team at the start of next season that will compete in future events.
