Thursday’s dual meet at Johnston came down to the final match for the Ankeny Centennial wrestling team.
Freshman Max Dhabolt won by a technical fall over Wes Weiford at 144 pounds, 16-0, to give the 10th-ranked Jaguars a 35-30 victory over No. 5 Johnston.
“I told Max before he went out on the mat that I don’t know if I’ve ever been more confident putting a freshman out there to seal the deal and win the meet for us,” said Centennial coach Jay Groth. “He’s proven himself time and time again this season.”
The win allowed Centennial to remain unbeaten, improving its records to 5-0 in the CIML Conference and 13-0 overall. Perhaps more importantly, the victory might elevate the Jaguars into the top eight in Class 3A in the next dual-meet rankings.
“There are two rankings left, and that decides who is in the top eight,” Groth said. “It’s important to get in the top eight because then you host (the regional dual-meet) and you get to face teams that are ranked below you.”
Each team won seven of the 14 matches, but the Jaguars scored bonus points in six of their seven wins. Freshman Ethan Sodergren pinned Shandrel Thompson in 2 minutes 38 seconds at 126.
“Ethan pinned a returning state qualifier,” Groth said. “We had a plan to wear him out, and he stuck with the plan. The two freshmen came up huge for us tonight.”
Sodergren had to cut a few pounds of weight following the holiday break.
“There’s a two pound growth allowance after break,” Groth said. “That two pounds is nice, but when you’re over by 10 pounds you still have to drop a lot of weight. We struggled a little bit with weight management, but hopefully we learned a lesson.”
Andrew Roland at 132 and Isaac Bruhl at 157 also had pins for Centennial. Cale Vandermark won by a technical fall at 113, and his brother Cody recorded a major decision at 120.
Mitchell Grider posted a 7-3 decision over Mason Roethler at 215. Johnston then won the next two matches to build a 27-9 lead, but the Jaguars then won five of the last six matches.
“It was a good win. The guys wrestled well,” Groth said. “Our coaches do a great job of looking at the lineups and figuring out where we match up well. They were dead on toinght.”
Centennial will compete in the Norwalk Duals on Saturday.
Here are the match-by-match results from Thursday’s meet:
Centennial 35, Johnston 30
150: Leonard (J) beat Anonson, 9-5; 157: I. Bruhl (AC) pinned Kelly, :16; 165: Helgeson (J) beat Ehlts, 13-0; 175: Blackorby (J) pinned D. Dhabolt, 1:20; 190: Gibbons (J) beat Cahill, 14-5; 215: Grider (AC) beat Roethler, 7-3; 285: Darling (J) pinned Adams, 3:16; 106: Beirman (J) beat Larsen, 17-5; 113: Ca. Vandermark (AC) won by technical fall over Huebbe, 16-1; 120: Co. Vandermark (AC) beat Madison, 13-0; 126: Sodergren (AC) pinned Thompson, 2:38; 132: Roland (AC) pinned Gilbert, :46; 138: Cornwell (J) beat Brennan, 4-0; 144: M. Dhabolt (AC) won by technical fall over Weiford, 16-0.
