The fourth-ranked Ankeny wrestling team bounced back from Thursday’s loss to visiting Johnston with a pair of non-conference victories Saturday on its home mat.
The Hawks rolled to a 61-12 win over Central Decatur, then followed with a 59-8 triumph over Centerville. They raised their overall dual record to 9-3.
“We knew these two teams didn’t have a ton of kids, and I was a little apprehensive,” said Ankeny coach Jack Wignall. “But I’m really satisfied with getting another weigh-in in, and the other schools were just great. The Centerville coach was apologetic because they’re dealing with some sickness, but they threw their kids out there and wrestled a bigger school in Ankeny. It was a good day. It was short and sweet and to the point, and most of our kids wrestled well.”
Ankeny recorded five falls against Central Decatur, four of them in under a minute. Truman Folkers at 126 pounds and Kash Johnson at 150 both pinned their opponents in 43 seconds.
Calvin Rathjen won by a technical fall at 132, while Aiden Winkie at 138 and Cameron Andersen at 165 both won by a major decision. The Hawks won three other matches by forfeit.
Folkers opened the meet against Centerville with another fall–this one in 1:13. After Ankeny won the next five matches by forfeit, there was a double forfeit at 165.
The Hawks then won another match by forfeit at 175 to build a 42-0 advantage. Only four more matches were contested–including a technical fall at 215 by Andrew Haase and a pin by Jack Dorfler at 285–but Wignall was still happy that the meets could be scheduled.
“I grew up in southern Iowa, and Central Decatur was in my conference when I was in high school at Melcher-Dallas,” Wignall said. “Wrestling is a struggle down there. It’s hard to get kids out. I would have died for the chance to wrestle in a dual meet like that as a high school kid.”
Wignall said that two of his idols while growing up in Melcher-Dallas were Jerry Pezzetti and Larry Ireland, who went on to become legendary coaches in Ankeny. Pezzetti is still the co-head football coach at Ankeny Centennial.
“That was one of the reasons I kind of wanted to be in Ankeny,” Wignall said. “I wanted to follow in their footsteps.”
Ankeny will host a CIML Conference dual meet against No. 1 Southeast Polk on Thursday. The huge challenge is coming at a good time for the Hawks, according to Wignall.
“I know how good they are and I’m realistic, but we’re never going to shy away from that dual meet,” he said. “I think we can compete in a lot of the matches. The goal is to go out there and punch them in the mouth and wrestle as hard as we can and see where we end up.”
Here are the match-by-match results from Saturday:
Ankeny 61, Central Decatur 12
113: Thomas (CD) pinned Salgado, 5:10; 120: Fontana won by forfeit; 126: Folkers pinned Buckingham, :43; 132: Rathjen won by technical fall over Oesch, 17-0; 138: Winkie beat Watson, 12-3; 144: Hamilton (CD) pinned Claeys, 4:42; 150: Johnson pinned Waugh, :43; 157: Rouh pinned Q. Furman, 1:46; 165: Andersen beat Allen, 16-8; 175: Schlee won by forfeit; 190: Egeberg pinned E. Furman, :59; 215: Haase pinned Frisbie, :46; 285: Dorfler won by forfeit; 106: Double forfeit.
Ankeny 59, Centerville 8
126: Folkers pinned Hart, 1:13; 132: Rathjen won by forfeit; 138: Winkie won by forfeit; 144: Claeys won by forfeit; 150: Johnson won by forfeit; 157: Rouh won by forfeit; 165: Double forfeit; 175: Schlee won by forfeit; 190: Snyder (C) won by technical fall over Egeberg, 21-6; 215: Haase won by technical fall over Natchkebia, 20-5; 285: Dorfler pinned Caraccio, 2:36; 106: Salgado won by forfeit; 113: Double forfeit; 120: Genobana (C) beat Fontana, 7-3.