For the first time in more than a decade, the Ankeny wrestlers captured the team title at their own Bob Sharp Invitational on Saturday.
The Hawks battled three other squads down to the wire before emerging with a narrow victory. They finished with 211.5 points, just ahead of Norwalk (208), Linn-Mar (Marion) (207) and Indianola (202.5).
Ankeny had not won its own tournament since former coach Dave Ewing guided the Hawks to back-to-back crowns in 2012-13, just prior to the split into two high schools. Ewing, who was in the crowd on Saturday, then retired and was replaced by Jack Wignall.
“I knew it would be close with those four teams,” said Wignall. “It was kind of expected, and it could have gone either way. We could have finished fourth, and it would not have surprised me. I knew we would wrestle well enough to be in the hunt, and it always feels good to win.”
Ankeny crowned a trio of individual champions. Eddie Salgado at 106 pounds, fourth-ranked Ben Walsh at 113 and No. 3 Truman Folkers at 126 each claimed a title.
Folkers posted a 7-2 decision over Malik DeBow of Linn-Mar in the finals. He raised his record to 21-4 while handing DeBow just his third loss in 21 matches.
Folkers, who pinned Norwalk’s Aiden Moret in 3 minutes 12 seconds in the semifinals, earned the second Sharp title of his career. He was the champion at 113 two years ago.
The tournament was cancelled due to bad weather in both 2022 and 2024.
“I’m glad we could get it in this year,” Wignall said. “We had some guys wrestle well–obviously Truman and Ben.”
Walsh improved his mark to 16-3 by pinning Norwalk’s Asaiah Martinez-Ruiz in 3:11. In the semifinals, Walsh recorded a 17-2 technical fall over Indianola’s Ayden Swedberg.
Salgado was one of only two wrestlers in his bracket, so he competed against Norwalk’s Gabriel Colunga in a best-of-three format. Salgado pinned Colunga twice, both times in the first period, to lift his record to 15-12.
The team points that Salgado earned were not immediately tallied by the scorekeepers. As the tournament was winding down, Salgado’s points were added to Ankeny’s total, giving the Hawks the team title.
“That ended up being the difference,” Wignall said. “When they did that, it put us over the top.”
Ankeny had three other finalists. Aiden Winkie at 138, Brady Claeys at 144 and No. 11 Jack Dorfler at 285 each placed second at their respective weights.
Winkie posted an 8-5 decision over teammate Harrison Folkers in the semifinals before losing by a technical fall, 15-0, to Hud Turner of Linn-Mar. His mark is now 12-6.
Claeys recorded a fall over Norwalk’s Cael Bemis in 2:18 in the semifinals. He was then pinned by Indianola’s Ryan Young in 1:35, dropping his record to 13-14.
Dorfler reached the finals with a 9-2 decision over Indianola’s Xander Overton. He then dropped an 8-0 major decision to Norwalk’s Kolton Borcherding-Johnson, leaving him with a 13-6 mark.
The Hawks got third-place finishes from Hayden Fontana (14-9) at 120, Jacob Haase (3-1) at 132, AJ Rouh (16-13) at 157 and Cam Andersen (11-10) at 165. Kash Johnson (14-13) at 150, Jacob Schlee (14-14) at 175 and Ryleigh Egeberg (10-11) at 190 each placed fourth.
Ankeny competed without a pair of ranked wrestlers, No. 2 Calvin Rathjen at 132 and No. 12 Andrew Haase at 215. Rathjen was out with an illness, while Haase was on an official visit to Wayne State (Neb.) for football.
“It was so close,” Wignall said of the team race. “All four teams were missing some kids too, so it was an interesting day.”
The Hawks will travel to Waukee Northwest on Thursday for a CIML Conference dual meet against the Wolves.
“I think they have nine ranked kids,” Wignall said. “We’re going to have to pull off some upsets.”