Ankeny Centennial’s Cale Vandermark stepped onto his home wrestling mat Thursday for the final time.
The three-time state placewinner will never forget his Senior Night.
Vandermark sealed the Jaguars’ 41-36 victory over 21st-ranked Waukee with a technical fall over Koye Gericke at 126 pounds. He racked up several takedowns before closing out the 23-7 win in 3 minutes 13 seconds.
“When we were up there for our weigh ins and I saw I’d be the last match, I was excited especially because it’s my senior year and this is our last dual here,” said Vandermark, who is ranked third at his weight. “It was a fun time.”
Vandermark raised his record to 18-3 on the season. He is now 138-21 in his career.
“Cale’s pretty steady,” said Centennial coach Jay Groth, whose team improved to 1-5 in the CIML Conference and 3-8 overall. “I wasn’t too worried about that (match).”
Vandermark underwent knee surgery in the offseason and is still trying to regain the form that he had as a junior, when he went 41-3 and placed second in Class 3A at 120.
“I always want to win for my team, and I try to be a leader and show the guys what the expectations are and just get it done,” said Vandermark, an Iowa State recruit. “I feel like I’m getting closer every day in the practice room.”
Groth has also seen Vandermark’s progress on a daily basis.
“He is definitely feeling better,” Groth said. “He was tentative for awhile with that knee because of the surgery, but he’s getting past that. Coming back he was also sick and on medication, and he couldn’t breathe so his conditioning wasn’t there either. But now he’s moving better and getting to his leg attacks better.
“Things are moving in the right direction for him,” he added.
Waukee took a 31-24 lead after No. 3 Andrew Hine recorded a fall in 28 seconds at 285. The Jaguars then got pins from Brenden Harless at 106 and Ethan Hand at 120 to set the stage for Vandermark’s decisive win.
“It was coming down to the last four matches, and I was back behind the bench and told those guys, ‘Hey, this is going to come down to you guys. You need to get bonus points if we’re going to do this,'” Groth said. “Brenden went out and got it done as a freshman, and you love to see that. Cameron (Moeckly) lost to a tough kid at 113, but he gave it everything he had. I knew Ethan could win, and that was a big win for him. I think it’s going to do a lot for his confidence moving forward to know that he can go out in a high-pressure situation and get the job done.”
Centennial also got pins from Will Sloan at 132, Brady Babcock at 138 and No. 10 Ethan Sodergren at 150. No. 9 Brandon Bogseth won by forfeit at 215.
“It was a good win,” Groth said. “It was a whole team effort. They all came through when they needed to.”
The Jaguars will compete in the Osage Duals on Saturday.
Here are the match-by-match results from Thursday’s meet:
Ankeny Centennial 41, Waukee 36
132: Sloan (AC) pinned Johnson, 2:37; 138: Babcock (AC) pinned Sundermann, :39; 144: Velazco (W) beat James, 13-9; 150: Sodergren (AC) pinned Bechler, :30; 157: Miller (W) beat Conley, 8-0; 165: Crispin (W) pinned Landis, 1:48; 175: Martin (W) pinned Rotert, 2:26; 190: Bakker (W) pinned Cole, 2:47; 215: Bogseth (AC) won by forfeit; 285: Hine (W) pinned Winkel, :28; 106: Harless (AC) pinned Schulte, :54; 113: Pelton (W) won by technical fall over Moeckly, 15-0; 120: Hand (AC) pinned Timmons, 3:05; 126: Vandermark (AC) won by technical fall over Gericke, 23-7.
