The Ankeny wrestling coaches devised a strategy to knock off Waukee Northwest in a matchup of two of the state’s top teams.
It paid off with a 42-38 victory on Thursday at Northwest.
“The kids wrestled hard,” said Ankeny coach Jack Wignall. “It was really (assistant coach) Austin Anderson’s idea to bump some of our guys up a weight. That was the only way we were going to win that dual. Our kids were up for it, and we went out there and performed.”
Northwest is ranked fourth in the Class 3A dual rankings, one spot ahead of Ankeny. The Wolves are third in the traditional rankings.
The Hawks elected to forfeit at 126 to Northwest standout Carter Freeman, who is ranked second. Ankeny’s Ben Hansen, who is ranked ninth at 126, bumped up to 132 and got a fall over Bain Jepsen in 1 minute 44 seconds.
The Hawks also got a fall at 152 from Jace Anderson, who is ranked fifth at 145. All seven of Ankeny’s wins came by fall.
“It was just a great team effort,” said Wignall, whose squad improved to 2-0 in the CIML Iowa Conference and 3-0 overall.
Ankeny immediately traveled to Cedar Falls after the meet. The Hawks will compete in the Battle of Waterloo on Friday and Saturday.
Here are the match-by-match results from Thursday’s meet:
Ankeny 42, Waukee Northwest 38
106: T. Folkers (A) pinned Noble, :45; 113: Christensen (WN) beat Maihan, 9-4; 120: T. Anderson (A) pinned J. Reiland, 1:02; 126: Freeman (WN) won by forfeit; 132: Hansen (A) pinned Jepsen, 1:44; 138: Stotts (WN) pinned Julich, 1:46; 145: Rubino (WN) pinned L. Folkers, 3:29; 152: J. Anderson (A) pinned Hutt, :36; 160: Peiffer (A) pinned Vollmecke, 3:06; 170: Kenworthy (A) pinned Weakley, 2:45; 182: Gammell (WN) pinned Smith, :53; 195: Bennethum (A) pinned Timm, 1:31; 220: Spyksma (WN) pinned Dorfler, 2:19; 285: B. Reiland (WN) pinned Kingston, 1:44.