With the Jag-Hawk wrestling dual meet coming up on Thursday at Ankeny Centennial, both teams are still trying to get to full strength.
It’s been a rough start to the season for the Jaguars, who placed 14th among 15 teams in the Keith Young Invitational on Saturday at Cedar Falls. Defending state champion Max Dhabolt has yet to wrestle, and neither have returning placewinners Cale Vandermark and Ethan Sodergren.
“I hope we’ll have those guys back (on Thursday), but I’ve got no guarantees right now,” said Centennial coach Jay Groth. “I’m pretty sure that Vandermark will be back. The rest of them are still on the injured list–I’d say they’re probable.”
Ankeny, meanwhile, competed in the Dan Gable Donnybrook on Friday and Saturday at Xtream Arena in Coralville. The Hawks placed 33rd among 37 squads.
Ankeny again wrestled without returning state placewinners Ben Walsh and Calvin Rathjen.
“I’m pretty confident we’ll have those kids back,” said Ankeny coach Jack Wignall. “I’m hopeful we’ll be at full strength.”
Centennial won the Cedar Falls tournament a year ago, but the Jaguars struggled on Saturday without defending champions Dhabolt and Vandermark. Sodergren, who was a runner-up at last year’s tournament, also sat out along with Brandon Bogseth.
“We didn’t have four starters out there, and that didn’t help. Three of them probably would have been No. 1 seeds,” said Groth, whose team scored just 17 points. “But we just didn’t wrestle well. We’ve got guys who are in the wrong weight class right now, so they’re getting tossed around by guys that are a lot bigger than them. Pretty much everybody from 150 (pounds) on down to 106 is at the wrong weight class, but I think that’s going to change.”
Dirk Winkel was the lone Centennial wrestler to win his opening match. He recorded a fall in 21 seconds at 285.
“We’re young,” Groth said. “We had some freshmen and sophomores wrestling varsity who haven’t wrestled 17- and 18-year-olds before. It was an eye-opener for some of them.”
The Hawks got a 16th-place finish from Gavyn Gatewood at 157 in the Donnybrook tournament. He recorded a technical fall for Ankeny’s lone win in the first round.
“I feel like every kid wrestled hard and got better,” Wignall said. “It’s not always about the wins and the losses. I was really happy with what we saw.”
Aiden Winkie at 138, Ryleigh Egeberg at 190 and Ryne Dobson at 215 each placed 18th at their respective weights.
“Aiden wrestled really well on the back side of the bracket, and so did Dobson,” Wignall said. “Ryne is a freshman wrestling against some men, and we got to see a lot from him this weekend. It was really great to see.”
Wignall said his team gained a lot of experience this week, beginning with Thursday’s 37-31 loss to Valley in its season opener.
“We had three days of wrestling in a row, and I hope that it pays off for us in February,” he said. “It was definitely a rough tournament for us, but we got the competition that we needed after that first round. Our kids were able to face some guys that they could compete against.”
Groth said the Jaguars will focus more on the fundamentals over the next few days.
“We need to do more work on our technique instead of live wrestling in practice,” he said. “That will show our guys the things they need to be doing.”