Ankeny Centennial wrestling coach Jay Groth felt pretty good about his team’s chances heading into Thursday’s dual meet against visiting Dowling Catholic.
The Jaguars backed up his confidence by winning 12 of the 14 matches and rolling to a 67-11 victory.
“We wrestled well,” said Groth. “I’ve been doing this a long time and I always go through the scores and try to figure out what’s going to happen, and it kind of played out pretty much like I thought it might.”
The meet was never in doubt after Centennial won the first 11 matches to build a 63-0 lead. Dowling won the next two matches to avoid a shutout before third-ranked Cale Vandermark closed out the meet with a major decision for the Jaguars at 113 pounds.
Centennial had nine falls and all but one of them came in the opening period. Danny Dhabolt had the fastest fall of the night, needing just 47 seconds to pin Grant Touney at 175.
Ethan Sodergren also recorded a fall in under a minute. He pinned Charlie Kelly in 57 seconds at 126.
The Jaguars also got falls from No. 9 Cody Vandermark at 120, Max Dhabolt at 144, Jackson Anonson at 150, No. 5 Isaac Bruhl at 157, No. 7 Ari Ehlts at 165, Jack Cahill at 190 and Mitchell Grider at 215.
“We went after it,” Groth said. “The guys smelled some blood and just kept that momentum going.”
Andrew Roland won by injury default at 132. The closest match of the night came at 138, where Tyler Brennan posted a 7-6 decision over Zeb Fitzgerald.
“I can’t complain too much,” Groth said. “We’re still working on winning all 14 matches.”
Centennial will compete in the Don Miller Invitational on Saturday at Fort Dodge. The Jaguars placed second at last year’s tournament behind Fort Dodge.
“We’re still not full strength yet, but we’ll get there,” Groth said. “We’re just going to have fun moving forward and enjoy the process and the results.”
Here are the match-by-match results from Thursday’s meet:
Centennial 67, Dowling Catholic 11
120: Co. Vandermark pinned Heffron, 2:00; 126: Sodergren pinned Kelly, :57; 132: Roland won by injury default; 138: Brennan beat Fitzgerald, 7-6; 144: M. Dhabolt pinned Bright, 2:27; 150: Anonson pinned Seda, 1:08; 157: I. Bruhl pinned Swift, 1:24; 165: Ehlts pinned Moffet, 1:29; 175: D. Dhabolt pinned Touney, :47; 190: Cahill pinned Hilligas, 1:37; 215: Grider pinned Krause, 1:13; 285: Hagan (DC) pinned Gonzalez, :52; 106: Wallukait (DC) won by technical fall over Larsen, 16-1; 113: Ca. Vandermark beat Simons, 15-4.
