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Sun Devil Wrestlers building bright futures as entrepreneurs

Between early-morning lifts and late-night study sessions, Sun Devil wrestlers Jacob Meissner and Carter Dibert are growing their blossoming construction company by taking full advantage of the resources available to them as ASU student-athletes.

Sun Devil Wrestlers building bright futures as entrepreneursSun Devil Wrestlers building bright futures as entrepreneurs
Carter Dibert Instagram

Sun Devil Wrestlers Carter Dibert, left, and Jacob Meissner are teammates in every sense of the word. They are not only on the wrestling team at ASU, but they are also roommates and business partners operating the construction company Landmark Siteworks.

by Meredith Cunningham

Life as a Division I student-athlete at Arizona State University requires resilience and a strategic commitment to excellence. 

On top of a rigorous academic schedule full of lectures, study sessions and homework, there are daily workouts and practices, as well as home and away games, all under the pressure of fans and national broadcasts.

For Sun Devil wrestlers Jacob Meissner and Carter Dibert, there’s an extra challenge: Running the business they started from the ground up. 

Between practices at Riches Wrestling Complex, competitions at Desert Financial Arena and classes at one of the nation’s top business schools, the two manage Landmark Siteworks, which is no easy feat. Their construction and site development company is already landing residential, commercial and government contracts back in Meissner’s home of Maple Grove, Minnesota.

While it seems like so much for two student-athletes to take on, it is something they both are passionate about. It’s a balancing act that mirrors wrestling itself, and the work parallels what they are learning in their day-to-day classes. 

“It’s how we are wired,” said Meissner, who attends the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering. “As Division I athletes, we treat work the same way we do wrestling. Our principles on the mat have very much carried over to how we run the business, how to be a leader and how to go through different adversities.”

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From lawn mowers to Landmark Siteworks
Meissner’s entrepreneurial spark entered the chat during his first year at ASU. He first explored launching a mentorship program between youth sports participants and Division I athletes. The idea never got off the ground, but the mindset and the hunger stayed. 

Meanwhile, back home in Minnesota, Meissner’s longtime friend and kindergarten classmate, Andrew Simonson, had been running a classic high school lawn mowing business.

Knowing Meissner’s sports mentoring venture, Simonson asked him to help rethink his operation and imagine it into something new, something bigger, something with purpose.  

Challenge accepted. 

“We didn’t know if it was going to take off. At first, we thought maybe we would make a little money,” explained Meissner.

“But then we stopped presenting ourselves as high school kids trying to make a quick buck. We started being professional, intentional and serious."

“We stopped presenting ourselves as high school kids trying to make a quick buck. We started being professional, intentional and serious.”

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That plan redefined what was possible. 

Landmark Site Works began to gain traction. The scope grew quickly. Residential projects expanded, developers reached out, commercial and government contracts followed. 

As everything was ramping up, Meissner’s teammate, roommate, who happens to be Dibert, took notice and asked to help. 

“I was thinking this is perfect because he’s a literal finance wizard. He loves this stuff,” said Meissner. 

Everything was sliding into place, and Dibert took the reins as CFO. 

“When Jacob started telling me what he was doing, I knew I could help. What I was learning in class was lining up perfectly with what the business needed: buying capital expenditures, mapping out your cash flow,” added Dibert, who is in the W. P. Carey School of Business. 

“It all lined up perfectly, but I think I had to prove myself a little bit, too, to Jacob and to myself.”

With the trio of Meissner, Dibert, and Simonson set and running operations, Landmark Siteworks quickly scaled. The team started creating structured estimating systems, building strategic banking relationships, and developing a vetted labor model capable of supporting larger contracts.

AND all of this was unfolding while they competed as Division I wrestlers and pursued business degrees at ASU. 

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Learning lessons while they’re young
Like any startup, Landmark Site Works is learning its lessons in real time. The 2025 government shutdown gave the pair a chance to relax, slow down, review and refine the whirlwind of growth they had seen in the previous year. 

During this refinement period, the team learned that seasonal work, like snow removal in Minnesota, provides low-risk opportunities to test systems before large-scale construction projects.

“For our company, that’s going to allow us to grow into these contracts safely because it is a little bit daunting when we have these contracts for millions of dollars,” Dibert explained.“It’s nice to be able to test the system a little bit with these snow contracts. Then the goal is that next year, all these government and commercial contracts will, hopefully, go off without a hitch.”

“ASU gave us a head start that most startups don’t get.”

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Leveraging ASU’s resources
Meissner and Dibert have spent the entirety of their collegiate careers at Arizona State. In a world where NIL and the transfer portal dominate collegiate sports, we’re seeing a new trend where student-athletes go to the school they think has the best chance to win, the best opportunity to send them to the pros, or the best training facilities. 

In this case, it’s Arizona State’s unmatched academic resources that have kept this pair in Tempe. 

Through ASU’s Venture Devils ecosystem and mentorship programs, the pair have connected with accountants, CFOs and small-business bankers. This guidance would typically cost hundreds of dollars per hour in consulting fees.

“ASU gave us a head start that most startups don’t get,” Meissner said. “One conversation we had turned into great accounting help and led to some strong banking relationships that we have now.”

For example, the company began strategically building credit by borrowing against its own capital to prove reliability to banks before securing complete lines of credit - all thanks to the conversation they had with their free ASU-provided consulting services. 

Mental health resources provided through ASU also play a role in keeping Landmark Siteworks running.

“I’m managing the stress of wrestling, life and business too, so sometimes I struggle mentally a little bit,” Dibert explained. “Talking to someone weekly just to hash things out keeps everything aligned, and it’s so huge for us. It’s so nice to have these resources.” 

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A lasting legacy beyond the mat
For Meissner and Dibert, this journey isn’t just about contracts or revenue. It’s about showing other student-athletes what’s possible, and Meissner wants to shout from the rooftops how important it is for Sun Devil student-athletes to take advantage of the available resources.

“College is the time to build something. Use the resources, talk to mentors, build relationships and lean into your people. You can do this while you’re here. This is the time to build something,” Meissner advised.

His message is simple: ideas mean nothing unless you act, and ASU makes it so easy to act. 

“I represent ASU in everything I do. They’re the reason why we have a head start, and they designed it to be that way. That adds to our ‘why?’ We need to let all of our friends know that what ASU has created is working, and we want to say ‘if you’re going to do this, go all in.”

College is the time to build something. Use the resources, talk to mentors, build relationships and lean into your people.

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The Sun Devil way
The saying goes, once you’re a Sun Devil, you’re a Sun Devil for life, and that’s true for Meissner and Dibert. 

They’ll never forget their roots as Sun Devil wrestlers, which continue to shape how they operate off the mat, whether negotiating contracts or communicating with partners. Wrestling teaches them to attack problems instead of avoiding them. Late payments. Staffing issues. Missed projections. 

None of it invites panic, it invites familiarity. 

“If you’re ten pounds over the day before weigh-in, you figure it out. You don’t complain. You adjust,” Meissner said. “Business is the same way.”

It’s entrepreneurship, Sun Devil style: practical, gritty and forward-thinking innovation, and this duo proves that the discipline of sport can launch something just as powerful.

Have a Sun Devil story of excellence to share? Fork it over to Meredith Cunningham, digital content manager for sundevils.com, at mcunni43@asu.edu.