As the wrestling season heads into the home stretch, both Ankeny and Ankeny Centennial are sitting in good positions.
The two teams earned top-four finishes in the CIML Invitational on Friday at Johnston. This was the final year of the 18-team tournament before the CIML splits into two conferences next year.
Eighth-ranked Ankeny placed third with 174 points. The Hawks had four runner-up finishers.
“I hate to say that we had some good losses, but we had some losses that are going to drive our kids to new heights–places we’ve never been,” said Ankeny coach Jack Wignall. “I think we’re in a really good spot.”
Centennial, meanwhile, finished fourth with 150.5 points. The Jaguars had two runners-up.
“We wrestled a lot better than we did last week (at the Ed Winger Invitational),” said Centennial coach Jay Groth. “We had quite a few guys on the podium and finished fourth overall, so we’re getting pretty close to where we want to be. We got (Jackson) Helmkamp back in the lineup, and he looked a lot better than he did last week. We’re getting closer and closer to having our best lineup out there.”
No. 1 Southeast Polk won the tournament with 259 points. No. 3 Waukee Northwest was second with 211.
Ankeny’s four finalists lost to two wrestlers from Southeast Polk and a pair from Northwest. Centennial’s two finalists both lost to Southeast Polk stars.
Placing second for the Hawks were seventh-ranked JJ Maihan at 113 pounds, No. 1 Trever Anderson at 120, No. 6 Ben Hansen at 126 and No. 7 Jace Anderson at 145. Helmkamp took second for the Jaguars at 160, and so did No. 3 Carter Cahill at 152.
Trever Anderson (28-1) suffered his first loss of the season. The two-time state champion dropped a 3-1 decision in overtime to No. 2 Carter Freeman of Northwest (37-1), who took advantage of a shot by Anderson to get the winning takedown.
“It was a heartbreaker. We lost some close matches,” Wignall said. “It rips your gut out when something like that happens, but Trever will be better for it. You never want to lose, but you find another gear when things don’t go your way.
“(Freeman) wrestled a great match. He did everything he needed to do to win that match. Now, Trever’s going to work on what he needs to do to win that match. He’s going to get it figured out,” Wignall added.
Maihan (21-11) posted an 8-6 decision over No. 3 Max Bishop of Fort Dodge in the semifinals. He then dropped a 5-1 decision to No. 2 Koufax Christensen of Northwest (31-3).
Hansen (25-6) lost by a technical fall, 20-5, to No. 1 Nate Jesuroga of Southeast Polk (36-1). Jace Anderson (27-6) dropped an 8-3 decision to No. 1 Joel Jesuroga of Southeast Polk (35-1).
“That is the best we have ever wrestled at the conference tournament, and we didn’t even wrestle the best that we could have,” Wignall said. “We don’t like to have four runners-up, but I was pleased with how the kids performed.”
Cahill (27-3) dropped a 7-4 decision to No. 2 Carter Martinson of Southeast Polk (28-2). He also lost to Martinson at the Winger tournament.
“It was another close one,” Groth said. “I think we can beat him. We’ve just got to tweak a couple of things, and Carter needs to have more confidence in his shots. Otherwise, I think we can get there.”
Helmkamp (4-1) posted a 10-5 decision over No. 9 Brayden Broderick of Northwest in the semifinals. He then lost, 9-2, to No. 2 Carson Martinson of Southeast Polk (34-4).
Helmkamp, a three-time state qualifier, recently returned to the lineup after missing most of the season due to an injury.
“He gave up a few points here and there in the finals, but a lot of that is just having a feel for what you’re doing and you can’t get that without being on the mat,” Groth said. “It was good for him to get out there and wrestle some matches and get some confidence back. We’ve been getting some extra conditioning in with him, Lucas (Bruhl) and a few other guys so we can make sure their lungs are as healthy as the rest of their bodies.”
Bruhl, who is ranked seventh at 138, placed third for the Jaguars after losing to No. 2 Jacob Frost of Dowling Catholic–the eventual champion–in the semifinals. He is now 10-2 on the season.
Centennial got fourth-place finishes from No. 9 Cody Vandermark at 106 and No. 11 Zach English at 170. Cael Wiener at 132 and Logan Song at 182 each placed fifth, while No. 11 Carter Bennett at 145 and Kaden Kaiser at 195 each finished sixth.
Ankeny got third-place finishes from No. 8 Truman Folkers at 106 and No. 2 Cade Bennethum at 182. Folkers posted an 11-5 decision over Vandermark in the third-place match.
Bennethum reached the semifinals before dropping a 4-1 decision to No. 4 Ben Egli of Fort Dodge.
“We felt like we should have had another (finalist) with Cade,” Wignall said. “But sometimes you wrestle a kid so many times and beat him, and it’s tough to beat him that many times in a row. So that was frustrating, but I was proud of the way that Cade bounced back to finish third.”
Carter Davis placed fourth for the Hawks at 132. He posted a 5-3 decision over Wiener in the quarterfinals.
Ankeny will travel to Des Moines North on Thursday for a double dual meet against the Polar Bears and Johnston. The Jaguars will go to Des Moines Roosevelt for a double dual against the Roughriders and Northwest.
“I think this is the first time I’ve gone back there and competed since I left,” said Groth, who coached at Roosevelt before leaving to start the Centennial program in 2013.
