The Ankeny Centennial wrestlers came away with a Class 3A district team title on Saturday for the second year in a row.
The Jaguars qualified nine wrestlers for the state tournament while racking up 208.5 points in the district meet at Fort Dodge. The host Dodgers, who are ranked sixth in Class 3A, placed second in the eight-team field with 189 points.
“It was nice to win the tournament,” said Centennial coach Jay Groth, whose team earned a district crown for the third time in school history. “We had to beat a couple of good teams from Fort Dodge and Council Bluffs Lewis Central to do it.”
Centennial crowned six individual champions, including three-time state qualifiers Cale Vandermark at 120 pounds, Andrew Roland at 126 and Isaac Bruhl at 150. Ethan Sodergren at 138 and Max Dhabolt at 157 both qualified for a second time, while Jacob Hand earned his first trip to state at 165.
Dhabolt and Sodergren both won their second district titles along with Vandermark and Bruhl. The six champions recorded nine pins and three technical falls among their 13 victories on Saturday.
Danny Dhabolt placed second for the Jaguars at 190, allowing him to qualify for state. Ryan Smith at 175 and Charlie Sloan at 285 both advanced with third-place finishes.
“The boys wrestled pretty well,” Groth said. “I always try (to get everyone to state), but I knew it was going to be tough for a few of them. I was pleased, though, with the fact that they all went out there and got after it. Nobody went through the motions. They all went out and fought.”
Top-ranked Max Dhabolt and the No. 2 Vandermark both pinned a pair of opponents in a combined 2 minutes 20 seconds. Dhabolt (29-1), a sophomore, pinned No. 6 Levi Johnson of Spencer in 1:29 to claim his title.
Vandermark (38-2) pinned Evan Stahl of LeMars in 1:06 in the finals. The junior did not have to face defending state runner-up Weston Porter of Lewis Central, who moved down a weight and captured the crown at 113.
The No. 9 Sodergren also pinned his way to the top of the awards podium, needing just 2:06 to flatten his two opponents. The sophomore pinned Easton Beehler of Spencer in 1:13 to raise his record to 31-7.
The No. 4 Bruhl and Hand also defeated wrestlers from Spencer in the finals. Bruhl (25-3) posted a 4-1 decision over Wyatt Heying, while fellow senior Hand (24-9) won by a 17-2 technical fall over Cohen Roth.
Roland, meanwhile, improved to 23-15 by dominating all three of his matches. The senior recorded two pins in a combined 1:43 before winning by a technical fall, 18-2, over Danny Cleveland of Sioux City East.
“Andrew has been in the finals a few times, but has never won it,” Groth said. “So he won his first varsity tournament ever today, and it was a good time to do that.”
Danny Dhabolt (17-12) advanced to the finals before dropping a 9-2 decision to No. 8 Paxton Blanchard of Lewis Central. He qualified for state for the first time along with fellow seniors Smith and Sloan.
Smith pinned Gavin Palazzo of Sioux City East in 1:32 in the third-place match. He is now 35-13 on the season.
Sloan (9-9) punched his ticket to state with a 13-2 major decision over Jake Schipper of Spencer in the semifinals. He lost the title match to No. 4 Joe Constable of Fort Dodge by medical forfeit and then injury defaulted his way out of the match for second place as well.
“We moved Charlie up to heavyweight, and he only weighed 193 pounds today,” Groth said. “He won two matches but he kind of rolled his ankle in the semifinals, so we didn’t wrestle him again since he was already in the state tournament. I’m very confident he would have finished first or second, but we decided to play it safe.”
Another senior, Brook Keller, came up short in his bid to qualify for state. He built a 13-3 lead over Noah Reed of Sioux City North in the third-place match at 215 before Reed caught Keller in a side roll and pinned him in 3:22.
“I was bummed about Brook,” Groth said. “He got pinned by a good kid, but Brook is clearly a better (wrestler). That one stings a little bit and leaves a bad taste in your mouth. He deserved to go to state, but it just didn’t go his way.”
Now, the Jaguars will head to Wells Fargo Arena looking for another top-10 finish in Class 3A. A year ago, they had six placewinners among their 11 qualifiers and placed fourth overall–matching the highest finish in school history.
“We have high expectations for them,” Groth said. “We’ve wrestled better in the last month or so, and I was hoping for at least that many (qualifiers) and that’s what we got. I thought some guys wrestled really well. We had really good performances from Jacob and Andrew.
“I’m looking forward to this week and seeing what we can do,” he added.