Ankeny wrestling coach Jack Wignall saw some progress from his team despite a close loss on Tuesday.
The 12th-ranked Hawks dropped a 33-32 decision to No. 6 Waukee Northwest in a CIML Conference dual meet at Southview Middle School. The Wolves got a pin from Abe Parker at 190 pounds to close out the meet.
“It was pretty close,” said Ankeny coach Jack Wignall, whose team fell to 2-5 in the conference and 7-9 overall. “It came down to the last match, and we just got caught in a position and got pinned and that was the end of the dual.”
Northwest won eight of the 14 matches, but had only three pins. One of the falls came courtesy of three-time defending state champion Carter Freeman at 138.
“The biggest thing was that we didn’t give up many pins tonight, and that keeps you in dual meets,” Wignall said. “That’s what you have to do, and we got some good pins ourselves.”
Ankeny had five falls among its six wins, including a big one at 132, where Perez Perez pinned John King in 5 minutes 28 seconds. King is ranked fifth at his weight in Class 3A.
“That was a big match,” Wignall said. “And it wasn’t a fluke. We were winning the match, and Perez just kept pushing and pushing. That was exciting to see.”
The Hawks also got pins from No. 6 Ben Walsh at 106, No. 10 Isaac Wignall at 113, No. 6 Truman Folkers at 126 and No. 4 Ben Hansen at 144. No. 11 Teagen Peiffer posted a 6-3 decision over Isaac Vollmecke at 157.
“Our kids wrestled hard,” Wignall said. “It was probably one of the better dual meets we’ve had.”
The meet was held at Southview due to a scheduling conflict. Ankeny also hosted some basketball games at the high school.
“It was fun,” Wignall said. “It was a good environment.”
The Hawks will close out their dual-meet season on Thursday by hosting Valley in their league finale. The two teams will then meet again in the opening round of a Class 3A regional dual on Tuesday at Indianola.
Wignall said he plans to wrestle his regular lineup on Thursday.
“I’ve always put my kids out there to wrestle,” he said. “How we do it Thursday and how we do it Tuesday isn’t going to be any different. We’re missing some matches from the Dave Ewing Duals and the Bob Sharp tournament, so our kids need the matches.”
Here are the match-by-match results from Tuesday’s meet:
Waukee Northwest 33, Ankeny 32
215: Bray. Williams (WN) beat Haase, 5-3; 285: Neeway (WN) beat Dorfler, 7-2; 106: Walsh (A) pinned Christensen, 2:45; 113: Wignall (A) pinned Cahill, 4:58; 120: Phillips (WN) beat Winkie, 3-1; 126: T. Folkers (A) pinned LaPorte, 2:30; 132: Perez (A) pinned King, 5:28; 138: Freeman (WN) pinned Claeys, :53; 144: Hansen (A) pinned Gallagher, 3:28; 150: Hutt (WN) pinned Johnson, 1:22; 157: Peiffer (A) beat Vollmecke, 6-3; 165: Rubino (WN) beat Peters, 17-3; 175: Bry. Williams (WN) beat Schlee, 12-8; 190: Parker (WN) pinned Creaseman, 1:52.
