Ankeny Centennial and Ankeny advanced a total of six wrestlers into Thursday’s quarterfinal round of the Class 3A state tournament at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.
The Jaguars won eight of 13 matches on Wednesday and are currently in seventh place in the team standings with 32.5 points. They advanced second-seeded Cale Vandermark at 120 pounds, No. 6 Ethan Sodergren at 138, No. 5 Isaac Bruhl at 150 and No. 1 Max Dhabolt at 157 into the quarterfinals.
“I thought we had a real good first (day),” said Centennial coach Jay Groth. “The guys came out and wrestled hard.”
Ankeny, meanwhile, went 5-6 on the day and is currently in 15th place with 21.5 points. The Hawks advanced No. 5 Ben Walsh at 113 and No. 3 Truman Folkers at 126 into the quarterfinals.
“We had an up-and-down day,” said Ankeny coach Jack Wignall. “We had some good wins in the first round, but we always know it’s going to be tough in that second match.”
Defending champion Southeast Polk already has a commanding lead in Class 3A with 72.5 points. The Rams advanced 13 of their 14 qualifiers into the quarterfinals, including five No. 1 seeds.
Indianola is a distant second with 46 points. Waukee Northwest is third with 42, followed by Johnston with 41.5.
Centennial scored bonus points in six of its wins. Dhabolt pinned No. 17 Lane Rozendaal of Newton in 1 minute 50 seconds to raise his record to 30-1.
“Max started a little slower than he usually does, but he got the job done,” Groth said.
Vandermark advanced by recording the fastest technical fall in the Class 3A session. He needed just 1:25 to rack up seven takedowns for a 21-6 win over No. 15 Josh Bergkamp of Dowling Catholic, improving his mark to 39-2.
“We actually slowed Cale down because we thought he could try to turn him over and pin him, so we spent a little time trying to do that but then we were like, ‘Ah, just take him down and get this over with,'” Groth said. “He probably could have done it faster. He was on a mission.”
Bruhl also advanced with a technical fall in the first period. He lifted his record to 26-3 with a 20-3 victory over No. 12 Brady Rissman of Western Dubuque.
“Zeke looked great,” Groth said. “He scored a lot of points.”
Sodergren advanced with a 12-6 decision over No. 11 Collin Frost of Davenport Central. He is now 32-7 on the season.
“Ethan looked good,” Groth said. “(Frost) is a little funky like he is, so we were a little cautious with him. But Ethan rode him for 4 minutes, so he pretty much dominated.”
In the opening round, Centennial got a technical fall from No. 9 Andrew Roland at 126. No. 16 Jacob Hand at 165 and No. 18 Danny Dhabolt at 190 both recorded major decisions, while No. 18 Ryan Smith posted a 4-1 decision over No. 15 Tyler Stanford of Norwalk in their third meeting of the season.
“Ryan had split with (Stanford) during the season–and each guy won by a major. This time it was more of a scrap,” Groth said. “I think a couple of our first-timers had a little bit of nerves, but they overcame it and went out and got the job done. Both Ryan and Danny beat kids who were seeded higher than them.”
Ankeny also racked up some bonus points, earning three pins and a technical fall among its five victories on the day.
Walsh pinned No. 12 George-Grant Mavromatis of Valley in 4:46 to advance to the quarterfinals. He improved to 28-3.
Folkers raised his record to 33-4 with an 18-2 technical fall over No. 14 Nick McCalister of Waukee. The match was scoreless after the opening period before Folkers dominated the rest of the way.
“The nerves of that tournament and just that quick weigh-in…it’s just tough in that environment,” Wignall said. “It took Truman a few periods to get going, and Ben didn’t get a quick pin. But I think it was good for those guys to get in there and have those type of matches.”
Both Walsh and Folkers will meet opponents from Dowling on Thursday. Walsh will face No. 4 Jack Wallukait, while Folkers will meet No. 6 Kyler Simons.
“They both just need to go out there and wrestle their match,” Wignall said.
The Hawks entered the tournament with three top-eight seeds, but No. 6 Calvin Rathjen was upset in the second round by No. 11 Jashua Anglo of Johnston at 132. Anglo avenged an earlier 4-1 loss by posting a 12-5 decision, getting a takedown and a four-point near-fall late in the match.
“We hadn’t planned on Calvin getting beat, that’s for sure. That was a tough loss,” Wignall said. “He tried to do a roll at the end, and Anglo was able to stop it. That was the match.”
The highlight of Ankeny’s opening round was back-to-back falls by No. 15 Brady Claeys at 144 and No. 11 Kash Johnson at 150 in a matter of seconds. Claeys trailed after the first period, 3-1, but then used a cradle to pin No. 18 Kale Leymaster of Cedar Rapids Xavier in 2:23.
“Brady has a really good cradle,” Wignall said. “We’ve told him that kids aren’t necessarily going to expect that. ‘You do it really well, so let’s see if they can defend it better than you can do it.’ Typically, they can’t.”
Those two advanced to the second round along with No. 16 Aiden Winkie, who posted a 10-9 decision over No. 17 Georvon Tyler of Waterloo East in a back-and-forth match at 138.
“Aiden wrestled really well,” Wignall said. “He rode that kid out for the last 30 seconds or so to get the win.”
In the second round, the Hawks and Jaguars lost a combined five matches to wrestlers seeded first or second.
“We had some tough draws, but now we just have to see what we can get done on the backside of the brackets,” Groth said. “We’ve been trying to be the Flyin’ Jaguars these last few weeks, so now we just have to let it fly. I’m looking forward to Thursday.”
Here are Centennial’s match-by-match results from Wednesday:
120: Cale Vandermark received a first-round bye; won by a technical fall over Josh Bergkamp (Dowling Catholic), 21-6.
126: Andrew Roland won by a technical fall over Colby Cross (Marshalltown), 17-1; lost to Easton Jorgenson (Waverly-Shell Rock), 7-0.
138: Ethan Sodergren received a first-round bye; beat Collin Frost (Davenport Central), 12-6.
150: Isaac Bruhl received a first-round bye; won by a technical fall over Brady Rissman (Western Dubuque), 20-3.
157: Max Dhabolt received a first-round bye; pinned Lane Rozendaal (Newton), 1:50.
165: Jacob Hand beat Cohen Roth (Spencer), 12-4; lost by a technical fall to Ethan Bibler (Waverly-Shell Rock), 18-0.
175: Ryan Smith beat Tyler Stanford (Norwalk), 4-1; was pinned by Lincoln Jipp (Bettendorf), 2:24.
190: Danny Dhabolt beat Dusty Cook (Cedar Rapids Xavier), 16-8; lost by a technical fall to Cain Tigges (Urbandale), 16-1.
285: Charlie Sloan lost to Andrew Hine (Waukee), 12-2.
Here are Ankeny’s match-by-match results from Wednesday:
106: Eddie Salgado lost by a technical fall to Chase Miller (Cedar Falls), 15-0.
113: Ben Walsh received a first-round bye; pinned George-Grant Mavromatis (Valley), 4:46.
126: Truman Folkers received a first-round bye; won by a technical fall over Nick McCalister (Waukee), 18-2.
132: Calvin Rathjen received a first-round bye; lost to Jashua Anglo (Johnston), 12-5.
138: Aiden Winkie beat Georvon Tyler (Waterloo East), 10-9; lost by a technical fall to Mac Crosson (Indianola), 24-8.
144: Brady Claeys pinned Kale Leymaster (Cedar Rapids Xavier), 2:23; lost by a technical fall to JahKari Clark (Valley), 19-4.
150: Kash Johnson pinned Kayden Crispin (Waukee), 1:14; lost by a technical fall to Elijah Blewitt (Indianola), 18-2.
157: AJ Rouh was pinned by Gabe Rubino (Waukee Northwest), 4:48.
