The Ankeny wrestling team was in a position to advance to the state duals tournament.
After the ninth-ranked Hawks posted a 36-28 victory over No. 11 Norwalk in a Class 3A regional dual on Tuesday at Carlisle, they took a 26-25 lead against No. 8 Carlisle with three matches left in the regional final.
Then, in the next match at 190 pounds, Ankeny’s Jacob Schlee jumped out to a 10-1 lead over Reichen Lopez after the opening period. Lopez closed the gap to 10-4 heading into the final period, then eventually got a fall in 5 minutes 54 seconds to give the Wildcats a 31-26 advantage.
A technical fall by Carlisle’s Asa Hemsted at 215 sealed a 35-32 win for the Wildcats, who then gave up a forfeit to Jack Dorfler at heavyweight.
“We certainly had a chance to win it,” said Ankeny coach Jack Wignall, whose team finished the dual season at 17-6. “We bumped up a couple of our weight classes. We bumped up our 65 to 75 and our 75 to 90. (Cameron Andersen) got slammed and couldn’t finish the match (at 175) so we won that. And then (Schlee was ahead the whole way), and we got pinned with 6 seconds left. If we win that match, we probably win and go to state duals.
“But we lost some other matches that we shouldn’t have lost. That one just sticks out because it was one of the last matches,” he added.
Ankeny got falls from Ben Walsh at 113 and Truman Folkers at 126. AJ Rouh recorded a technical fall at 157, and Hayden Fontana posted a 12-10 decision over Adrian Zamora-Garcia at 120.
Andersen later won by the injury default, but it wasn’t enough to offset a pair of pins and two technical falls by Carlisle–which also got a 12-3 major decision from Aiden Serrano over Calvin Rathjen at 132.
“We knew they had a good team and they were able to bump some people here and there, and that’s what they did,” Wignall said of the Wildcats. “Credit to Carlisle–they wrestled tough, no doubt about it.”
Earlier, Ankeny and Norwalk split the first four matches before the Hawks reeled off five consecutive victories to build a commanding 30-7 margin, capped off by Kash Johnson’s 7-4 decision over Liam McLaughlin at 150.
“It’s always disappointing to lose a dual like the last one, but there were some bright spots tonight,” Wignall said. “We had some kids wrestle really well. Against Norwalk, Kash beat a kid that teched us at the Bob Sharp Invite. For Kash to wrestle that well was a huge turnaround. AJ also wrestled well against a tough kid and kept it close.”
After Rouh dropped an 8-4 decision to Dominic Tigner, Andersen followed with a pin over Kadan Borcherding-Johnson in 3:18 to seal the Hawks’ win. That allowed Wignall’s team to forfeit the last three matches.
“We got the ball rolling against Norwalk and really thought we were in a good place, but then Carlisle caught us,” Wignall said. “Now we can take a little time off, so that is a positive.”
The Hawks will compete in a Class 3A district tournament on Feb. 15 at Marshalltown.
Here are the match-by-match results from Tuesday:
Ankeny 36, Norwalk 28
285: Ko. Borcherding-Johnson (N) beat Dorfler, 10-4; 106: Salgado (A) pinned Colunga, 3:26; 113: Walsh (A) pinned Clark, :57; 120: Martinez-Ruiz (N) beat Fontana, 20-10; 126: Folkers (A) beat Moret, 13-2; 132: Rathjen (A) won by technical fall over B. Stanford, 17-2; 138: Winkie (A) beat Wadle, 5-1; 144: Claeys (A) beat Lee, 9-7; 150: Johnson (A) beat McLaughlin, 7-4; 157: Tigner (N) beat Rouh, 8-4; 165: Andersen (A) pinned Ka. Borcherding-Johnson, 3:18; 175: T. Stanford (N) won by forfeit; 190: Esparza (N) won by forfeit; 215: Tripp (N) won by forfeit.
Carlisle 35, Ankeny 32
106: Hummel (C) beat Salgado, 15-11; 113: Walsh (A) pinned Shelton, :59; 120: Fontana (A) beat Zamora-Garcia, 12-10; 126: Folkers (A) pinned Baccam, 1:05; 132: Serrano (C) beat Rathjen, 12-3; 138: Rider (C) won by technical fall over Winkie, 22-5; 144: Soto (C) beat Claeys, 15-7; 150: Lucas (C) beat Johnson, 4-2; 157: Rouh (A) won by technical fall over Hamm, 16-1; 165: Miller (C) pinned Reysack, 1:16; 175: Andersen (A) won by injury default over Noland; 190: Lopez (C) pinned Schlee, 5:54; 215: Hemsted (C) won by technical fall over Egeberg, 17-1; 285: Dorfler (A) won by forfeit.
