The Ankeny Centennial wrestling team got off to a good start in The Clash on Friday at LaCrosse, Wis.
The rest of the tournament didn’t go as well for the Jaguars.
After opening the two-day event with a 42-25 victory over Glenbard North (Ill.), Centennial dropped its next two dual meets in the preliminary round. The Jaguars then lost to all three of their opponents in the fourth-place bracket on Saturday and finished 16th overall in the 30-team field.
“Glenbard was the No. 2 seed in our bracket and we were No. 7, and they were clearly overrated,” said Centennial coach Jay Groth, whose team is now 8-6 on the season. “That win put us in the semifinals, but it meant that we had to wrestle some pretty solid teams the rest of the weekend.”
Centennial followed the win over Glenbard North with a 41-16 loss to Anoka (Minn.), a storied program with a rich tradition. The Jaguars then dropped a 33-23 decision to Hersey (Ill.).
On Saturday, Centennial suffered a 43-20 loss to Liberty (Az.), a state runner-up last year. The Jaguars followed with a 37-34 loss to Washington (Ill.), then closed out the tournament with a 50-13 setback to Thompson (Ala.).
“We fought and we were outclassed by some of those teams, but we had some chances to win and things just didn’t fall our way I guess,” Groth said.
Centennial’s Carter Cahill won all three of his matches on Friday. Ranked third in Class 3A at 152 pounds, the senior then lost for the first time this season on Saturday, when he was pinned by Liberty’s David Rodgers in 23 seconds.
“Cahill got in bad position and got caught in a cradle,” Groth said. “(Rodgers) was a very good wrestler.”
The Jaguars’ other unbeaten grappler, No. 9 Zach English at 170, went 2-4 in the tournament. Three of his losses came by a combined seven points.
“Zach wrestled some real good kids,” Groth said.
Centennial’s Lucas Bruhl went 5-1 at 138 with a fall, two technical falls and two major decisions. His only loss came to Anoka’s Carter Ban, 6-1.
“Lucas got caught in a throw and was put on his back,” Groth said. “He (avoided the fall) but wasn’t able to make up those points.”
Bruhl and Cahill each had a pin in the win over Glenbard North. The Jaguars also got falls from No. 12 Carter Bennett at 145, Mitchell Grider at 220 and Payton Bright at 120.
“Bright looked much improved from what he had been doing earlier in the year,” Groth said.
Centennial’s Kaden Kaiser went 4-1 at 195 in the tournament. No. 10 Cody Vandermark at 106 and Logan Song at 160 each went 3-3.
Song posted a 2-0 decision over Glenbard North’s Johnnie Robertson, who is ranked sixth in Illinois. Vandermark posted a 9-6 decision over No. 10 Kalani Khiev in the same dual.
All three of Song’s losses came to state champions.
“We got a lot of matches for a lot of guys, and we wrestled some state champs and some state placewinners and saw a lot of good teams,” Groth said. “Individually, we had some great matches by some of our guys. We just didn’t put it all together at the right time.
“We saw a lot of things that we need to work on,” he added.
The Jaguars didn’t finish wrestling until 9:30 p.m. on Saturday. They then spent another night in LaCrosse due to some bad weather.
Centennial will travel to Marshalltown on Thursday for a CIML Iowa Conference dual meet against the Bobcats before competing in the Osage Duals on Saturday.