The unbeaten streak came to an end for the Ankeny Centennial wrestlers.
The sixth-ranked Jaguars traveled to Southeast Polk on Thursday and dropped a 46-19 decision to the No. 1 Rams, who won 10 of the 14 matches.
Centennial’s records dropped to 6-1 in the CIML Conference and 17-1 overall.
“They’ve got a good team,” Centennial coach Jay Groth said of the Rams. “But we lost some matches that we should have won. We talked after the meet that if we want to be a top-level team, we need to win the close matches. We can’t let the referee decide it, and we can’t be satisfied with a close loss.
“We need some guys to step up and realize how good they can be. They’re right on the brink of being great wrestlers, but they’ve got to believe it and buy into it themselves,” he added.
Despite the loss, Centennial won three of the five matchups between rated opponents. Third-ranked Cale Vandermark provided the Jaguars’ only win in the first 11 matches with a 7-1 decision over No. 7 Mat Prine.
Southeast Polk built a 46-3 lead before No. 2 Lucas Bruhl pinned No. 5 Logan Trenary in 2 minutes 56 seconds at 150. No. 4 Isaac Bruhl followed with a pin over No. 12 Abe Bushong in 37 seconds at 157 before No. 5 Ari Ehlts closed out the meet with a 10-2 major decision over Mazin Arafa at 165.
“The Bruhls both got pins, Cale wrestled a good match against a good kid, and Ehlts looked good, too,” Groth said. “Those guys were all aggressive and wrestled well. I can’t complain about any of them.”
Southeast Polk had four falls on the night. No. 2 Carter Pearson pinned No. 4 Cody Vandermark in 46 seconds at 120, and No. 2 Holden Hansen pinned No. 10 Mitchell Grider in 1:21 at 215.
The Rams also got a big win from unranked Garrett Kingery, who posted a 5-4 decision over No. 5 Max Dhabolt at 144. Dhabolt lost for only the second time this season.
“There’s an old saying that the difference between an average wrestler and a great wrestler is toughness,” Groth said. “We’ve just got to get tougher if we want to be great.”
The Jaguars will compete in the Ed Winger Invitational on Saturday at Urbandale.
Here are the match-by-match results from Thursday’s meet:
Southeast Polk 46, Ankeny Centennial 19
175: Loving beat Smith, 13-3; 190: Slade won by technical fall over Cahill, 23-7; 215: Hansen pinned Grider, 1:21; 285: Martinson pinned Adams, :36; 106: DeSalvo pinned Larsen, 1:23; 113: Ca. Vandermark (AC) beat Prine, 7-1; 120: Pearson pinned Co. Vandermark, :46; 126: Riggins beat Sodergren, 11-2; 132: Lawson beat Roland, 13-8; 138: Oberbroeckling beat Brennan, 4-2; 144: Kingery beat M. Dhabolt, 5-4; 150: L. Bruhl (AC) pinned Trenary, 2:56; 157: I. Bruhl (AC) pinned Bushong, :37; 165: Ehlts (AC) beat Arafa, 10-2.
