In 2019, the Ankeny Centennial wrestling team placed fourth in the Class 3A state tournament, the school’s highest finish ever.
This week at Wells Fargo Arena, the fourth-ranked Jaguars are looking to finish even higher.
Centennial got off to a great start on Wednesday, when the Jaguars went 11-3 on the opening day of the tournament and advanced eight of its 11 state qualifiers to Thursday’s quarterfinals.
“I’m really proud of this team,” said Ari Ehlts, who was one of two Jaguars to win a pair of matches on Wednesday. “I think we can get a tournament trophy at this rate.”
No. 1 Southeast Polk leads the Class 3A field with 58 points. Centennial sits in second place with 48.5 points, one more than No. 2 Bettendorf.
“I think we can go pretty far in this tournament,” said Isaac Bruhl, who also advanced to the quarterfinals. “Hopefully, we can get a trophy at the end.”
After going 3-2 in the first round, the Jaguars enjoyed a spectacular second round, winning eight of their nine matches. They recorded six falls on the day, including one by the fourth-seeded Bruhl over Ankeny’s Teagen Peiffer at 157 pounds.
“I thought our boys wrestled really well today,” said Centennial coach Jay Groth. “They got after it, were aggressive and tried to score points. A couple of times, we got a lead and then tried to wrestle not to lose–that got a little hairy–but they did all right and got the nerves out. Now they’re performing better.”
Bruhl raised his record to 20-1 by pinning Peiffer in 2 minutes 33 seconds in the second round. He had posted a 16-4 major decision over Peiffer a month ago, but Wednesday’s rematch was scoreless after the opening period.
“I was confident,” Bruhl said. “I was trying to go after him. We were going all over the mat, and I just needed to be more active and do my stuff. I assume he knew I was going to be coming for slide bys and go behinds. He was a little cautious, grabbing my wrists and stuff. But I just kept going after him.”
The No. 9 Ehlts got a fall in his first match at 165, then posted a 7-2 decision over No. 8 Drew Burds of Western Dubuque. Last year, Ehlts was a No. 8 seed who lost in the second round after receiving a bye.
“I kind of liked having a match (in the first round) this year to get me warmed up,” said Ehlts, who improved to 33-8. “It gave me some energy before the next match.”
Ehlts is looking to make a deep run this week after going 1-2 at last year’s tournament.
“I want to score points, win matches and get on the podium,” he said. “It’ll take care of itself if I just keep scoring.”
No. 9 Tyler Brennan took a similar path to the quarterfinals at 138. After winning his first match by a fall, he posted a 4-3 decision over No. 8 Sevastian Soto of Carlisle to lift his mark to 25-13.
“That was awesome,” Groth said of the two mini-upsets. “Ari wrestled really well, and Tyler wrestled a good kid–I think Soto has been at state at least three years. But Tyler wrestled a smart match and stuck with the plan that we had. He kept waving me off when I told him we were going to go neutral and he wanted to go down, and it worked out. I’m not saying it’s all coaching, but that was a little bit of coaching anyway.”
In the first round, Brennan pinned Eddie Fulton of Des Moines Roosevelt in 1:14. During that match, Groth sat across the mat from his son Michael, who coaches the Roughriders.
“It was bittersweet, I guess,” Groth said. “I like to see my son’s kid do well, but obviously I want my kid to win. It’s awesome that Roosevelt got a kid to state for the first time since 2015. It makes me feel good–I know Michael is doing things right over there.”
No. 5 Cale Vandermark at 113, No. 4 Cody Vandermark at 120, No. 3 Max Dhabolt at 144, No. 4 Lucas Bruhl at 150 and No. 7 Mitchell Grider at 215 also advanced to the quarterfinals for the Jaguars. Cody Vandermark (33-4) and Dhabolt (32-2) defeated the same opponents from Iowa City West that they beat on Saturday in the finals of the district tournament.
Centennial’s Ethan Sodergren also won a rematch from the district tournament in the opening round at 126. He then dropped a 7-2 decision to No. 7 Evan Bratten of Dubuque Hempstead, but he’ll compete in the consolation bracket on Thursday along with teammates Andrew Roland at 132 and Jack Cahill at 190.
Two of Centennial’s quarterfinalists will meet No. 1 seeds. Brennan will face three-time state champion Carter Freeman of Waukee Northwest, while Ehlts will meet defending champion Jacob Helgeson of Johnston.
Here are Centennial’s results from Wednesday:
113: Cale Vandermark received a bye; pinned Caleb Arroyo (Urbandale), 1:37.
120: Cody Vandermark received a bye; beat Matthew Tran (I.C. West), 14-6.
126: Ethan Sodergren beat Teagan Kendall (C.R. Prairie), 8-2; lost to Evan Bratten (Dub. Hempstead), 7-2.
132: Andrew Roland lost to Nick Esser (Dallas Center-Grimes), 6-2.
138: Tyler Brennan pinned Eddie Fulton (D.M. Roosevelt), 1:14; beat Sevastian Soto (Carlisle), 4-3.
144: Max Dhabolt received a bye; pinned Braden Doyle (I.C. West), 1:11.
150: Lucas Bruhl received a bye; won by technical fall over T.R. Putz (Pella), 16-1.
157: Isaac Bruhl received a bye; pinned Teagen Peiffer (Ankeny), 2:33.
165: Ari Ehlts pinned Tanner Cournoyer (Pleasant Valley), 1:01; beat Drew Burds (W. Dubuque), 7-2.
190: Jack Cahill was pinned by Camden Feuerhelm (LeMars), 5:48.
215: Mitchell Grider received a bye; pinned Ronan Numkena (Bettendorf), 2:27.
