(Story by Stephen McDaniel)
The new year didn’t quite start with the bang that the Ankeny girls’ wrestling team was hoping for.
Ankeny bolstered an 11-0 record to close out the 2024 portion of its schedule, but a 2-1 mark during a quadrangular meet on Thursday at Southeast Polk snapped its undefeated streak to open up the new year.
Coach Dustin Roland’s team opened the meet by beating Johnston, 66-18, to extend the winning streak to 12 matches. They followed it up with a 49-20 victory over Des Moines Public Schools to reach 13-0, but some late losses and open weights ended the streak with their 52-30 loss to the host Rams.
“The gap is closing,” said Roland, whose team is now 2-1 in the CIML Conference and 13-1 overall. “We came out, taught the girls some things right away, they were coachable and picked it up. The rest of the state and a lot of people were behind, but that’s no longer a thing anymore. There’s younger girls coming up with a lot more experience than girls in high school now, and that’s changing the dynamic of high school girls’ wrestling. The day of us going in and thinking we’re going to dominate is over. We’ve got to work our butts off to compete in matches like that.”
Falls and forfeits helped Ankeny run the score up in its two wins on the night. There were seven weights forfeited by Johnston while Zoe Sullivan, Trudy Haag, Ariana Clinton and Audri Headrick recorded falls.
DMPS only forfeited two weights, but falls from Haag, Haylee McGrew, Aysia Moser and Mady Postma along with an 11-2 major decision by Lauren Watson swayed the dual in Ankeny’s favor.
Ankeny and Southeast Polk traded bonus-point victories back and forth as the lead switched hands seven times. McGrew gave Ankeny a 30-26 lead with a fall at 170 pounds before the Rams clinched the dual with four straight bonus-point wins.
Southeast Polk’s Sophie Ree earned a second-period pin to put the lead back in the Rams’ hands and with back-to-back Ankeny forfeits at 235 and 100, the dual was clinched for the hosts. Sullivan attempted to end the dual on a high note for Ankeny, but Southeast Polk’s Natalie Nichols rallied back for a third-period fall to close things out at 110.
“We just need to recognize some positions of danger, and we’re just not there yet,” Roland said. “Mainly when we get caught with our elbows away from our body, it’s a tough position for us to be in and it costed us two matches in (the Southeast Polk) dual.”
Despite not walking out of the gym with a 3-0 record, the Ankeny girls saw a couple of standout matches in their return to the mat following the near two-week break from action.
Sophomore Hayden Bratland scored one of the biggest wins of the night for Ankeny across the three duals.
Ranked second at 140 pounds, Bratland bumped up to 145 against DMPS to knock off No. 3 Diana Gaie. Bratland didn’t surrender a single point in the showdown and came away with a 7-0 decision.
Bratland was one of four Ankeny wrestlers to come away with a perfect 3-0 mark on the night as Haag, Clinton and McGrew all went undefeated as well.
At 120, Haag had one of the best individual nights for Ankeny recording falls in her three matchups. She opened the night by pinning Johnston’s Lauren Lambert in 58 seconds, followed it up with a fall in 1:57 over DMPS’ Maribelle Geist-Rochau and ended the night by pinning Southeast Polk’s Ella Dienes at 1:53.
Both McGrew and Clinton notched a pair of pins with one forfeit victory on their way to 3-0 records. McGrew made quick work of her 155 matchup with DMPS’ Hope Davies by earning the fall in 37 seconds before going on to pin Southeast Polk’s Teryn Vanderbeek in just over a minute at 170.
Clinton recorded one of Ankeny’s fastest pins of the night with a 17-second fall over Johnston’s Haylee Seifert at 125. Against Southeast Polk, Clinton picked up a win over Raelinn Ware, who held two prior victories over Clinton before Thursday’s matchup.
Ware previously pinned Clinton twice–once at the CIML Girls JV meet and once during JV 125 semifinals at the Saydel Girls Invitational–but in the third meeting, Clinton pinned Ware in just under 2 minutes.
Jammie Krah, Kaylie Staples and Moser all recorded 2-0 records, which featured Krah recording a fall over Southeast Polk’s Alexis Steele in 1:08 at 145 and Moser nearly going the distance before pinning DMPS’ Kayliana King in 5:03 at 170.
Ankeny was more than happy to have Sofia Romesburg return to the mat. Romesburg went 0-2 on the night, but made her return to the lineup for the first time since the first week of the season.
“(Romesburg) was a little frustrated tonight and lost two matches,” Roland said. “But she hasn’t been on the mat in over a month, so we’ll work our way back in. Nobody cares how you did on Jan. 2, no one will ask how you did on Jan. 2. The goal isn’t to win the conference duals, we’ve done that, the goal is to bring home a state trophy and that goal is still very much alive.”
Ankeny is still working toward getting a fully healthy lineup. Junior Nora Bockes, ranked fifth at 115, and senior Elyse Engebretson, ranked fourth at 125, weren’t able to compete, which took two of the team’s top wrestlers out of the lineup.
The new year isn’t going to slow down much for Ankeny, which turns right around to face two of the top-ranked teams in the state with Cedar Falls and Raccoon River coming to Northview Middle School on Tuesday.
“Nobody is going to feel sorry for us, we’ve got to work harder and that’s what we’re going to do,” Roland said. “We’re going to go out and do what we can do Tuesday night against a very, very, very good Cedar Falls team and a pretty darn good Raccoon River team. But there’s a reason why we have a schedule like that. It’s so we can be ready to go once it’s February.”
Here are the match-by-match results from Thursday’s meet:
Ankeny 66, Johnston 18
100: Weiss (J) won by forfeit; 105: Z. Sullivan pinned Petersen, :17; 110: Spah (J) pinned P. Sullivan, 1:52; 115: Stites won by forfeit; 120: Haag pinned Lambert, :58; 125: Clinton pinned Seifert, :17; 130: Headrick pinned Carstensen, 3:24; 135: Postma won by forfeit; 140: Bratland won by forfeit; 145: Krah won by forfeit; 155: McGrew won by forfeit; 170: Newman (J) pinned Romesburg, 3:26; 190: Moser won by forfeit; 235: Staples won by forfeit.
Ankeny 49, Des Moines Public Schools 20
105: Watson beat Carnes, 11-2; 110: Paw (D) beat Z. Sullivan, 10-0; 115: Strickland (D) pinned Stites, 1:36; 120: Haag pinned Geist-Rochau, 1:57; 125: Clinton won by forfeit; 130: Standifer (D) beat Headrick, 12-0; 135: Postma pinned Hansen, 2:35; 140: Stember won by forfeit; 145: Bratland beat Gaie, 7-0; 155: McGrew pinned Davies, :37; 170: Moser pinned King, 5:03; 190: Staples won by forfeit; 235: Double forfeit; 100: Gurisho (D) won by forfeit.
Southeast Polk 52, Ankeny 30
110: Vermillion beat Watson, 14-0; 115: Rodriguez-Acosta pinned Stites, 3:22; 120: Haag (A) pinned Deines, 1:53; 125: Clinton (A) pinned Ware, 1:46; 130: Nelson pinned Headrick, 3:15; 135: Varvel pinned Postma, :51; 140: Bratland (A) pinned Shogren, 1:06; 145: Krah (A) pinned Steele, 1:08; 155: Slade pinned Stephenson, :18; 170: McGrew (A) pinned Vanderbeek, 1:09; 190: Ree pinned Romesburg, 3:25; 235: Bishop won by forfeit; 100: Williams won by forfeit; 105: Nichols pinned Z. Sullivan, 5:52.