The Ankeny wrestling team closed out Thursday’s season-opening dual meet against visiting CIML Conference rival Valley with four consecutive wins, but it wasn’t enough to overcome a 24-point deficit and the Tigers held on for a 37-31 victory.
Valley avenged a 53-19 loss in last year’s opener. The Hawks wrestled without two of their five returning state qualifiers–Ben Walsh and Calvin Rathjen.
“Ben just got cleared today,” said Ankeny coach Jack Wignall. “We’re going to get those guys ready to go.”
Valley jumped out to a 19-0 lead on the strength of a major decision at 106 pounds and back-to-back falls at 113 and 120. The Tigers later had two more pins at 157 and 165 after winning by a disqualification at 150, allowing them to build a 37-13 advantage.
“There was quite a bit of drama there,” Wignall said. “It is what it is, but at the end there, our kids showed a lot of heart and I was really proud of them all.”
Ankeny got a fall from Kash Johnson at 175. Ryleigh Egeberg won by forfeit at 190 to close the gap to 37-25.
Layne Hearne then outlasted Valley’s Sammy Roemmich, 18-14, in a seesaw bout at 215. The match brought fans of both teams to their feet at times.
“Layne has never won a varsity match, and the kid goes out there and wrestles his heart out,” Wignall said. “It was fun.”
The Hawks then got another win from heavyweight Ryne Dobson to close out the meet. The undersized Dobson edged Alonzo Jimenez, 10-9, in another back-and-forth battle.
Ankeny also got a pin from Perez Perez at 132, a major decision from Aiden Winkie at 138 and a decision from Jacob Haase at 144.
“We knew we had a good freshman class, and a lot of those guys got into the lineup tonight,” Wignall said. “They wrestled really, really well. We can get better and they’re going to get better, but they wrestled hard and that’s what I want. Sometimes winning doesn’t always show up on the scoreboard, but I felt like we had some places where we won with some things tonight.”
Ankeny will compete in the Dan Gable Donnybrook on Friday and Saturday at Xtream Arena in Coralville.
Here are the match-by-match results from Thursday’s meet:
Valley 37, Ankeny 31
106: Moore (V) beat L. Haase, 13-1; 113: Fry (V) pinned Salgado, 1:22; 120: Lange (V) pinned Burch, 2:49; 126: Mavromatis (V) beat Klaver, 5-3; 132: Perez (A) pinned Clark, 1:49; 138: Winkie (A) beat Schulz, 11-1; 144: J. Haase (A) beat Kiner, 9-4; 150: Bennett (V) won by disqualification over Wignall; 157: Wheelan (V) pinned Klonglan, 5:39; 165: Cochran (V) pinned Gatewood, 1:11; 175: Johnson (A) pinned Kivell, 1:02; 190: Egeberg (A) won by forfeit; 215: Hearne (A) beat Roemmich, 18-14; 285: Dobson (A) beat Jimenez, 10-9.
