(Story by Stephen McDaniel)
The 2025-26 wrestling season had barely just finished on Friday night at Xtream Arena before the Ankeny girls’ team started eagerly eyeing the 2026-27 campaign.
Ankeny may have fallen short of its goal of capturing the Class 2A team title, but the program added to its history books by claiming two more individual crowns while finishing fourth overall with 105.5 points.
Building off what they saw in the Class 2A state tournament and mixing it with more returning talent makes the future extremely bright for the program.
“Our goal this year was to win the state (team) title and it didn’t happen,” said Ankeny coach Dustin Roland. “But you know what, oh well. It’s high school wrestling. We love each other, and we have so much fun together. But I can guarantee the goal next year is to win the state title.”
The highlight of the tournament for Ankeny was junior Lauren Watson and sophomore Jammie Krah etching their names into the history books as state champions after being previous placewinners.
“It sounds unreal, but I love the sound of it,” Watson said of her new title of state champion.
Watson had arguably one of the biggest victories in the short history of Iowa girls’ high school wrestling when she dethroned Raccoon River-Northwest’s three-time defending champion Katie Biscoglia in the final at 110 pounds.
The match only lasted 43 seconds with Watson utilizing a chin whip on a takedown attempt that got Biscoglia stuck on her back and allowed Watson to become just the second girl ever and first Iowan to beat Biscoglia.
“It’s arguably the biggest win in girls’ state history,” Roland said. “We have been prepping for that moment for maybe a year and a half. We’ve been closing the gap on Katie every time we’ve wrestled and the last time we’ll wrestle her in high school, we were fortunate enough to have the tables turn our way.”
A few weight classes later, Ankeny saw Krah make the leap from seventh place as a freshman to becoming the 145-pound state champion.
Krah tallied bonus-point victories in every single one of her matches, which led her to besting top-seed Lizzy Wolf of Benton Community by an 18-2 technical fall in the semifinals earlier on Friday.
In the finals, Krah used two first-period takedowns and a pair of takedowns and near falls late in the third period to clinch the crown over second-seeded Lauren Luzum of Decorah in a 21-6 technical fall.
“My coaches are amazing, they’re always building my confidence and my teammates’ as well,” Krah said. “They always say good things and positive things, and that’s definitely helped me since I’ve started in eighth grade to now.”
Watson and Krah became the third and fourth state champions in program history after Elyse Engebretson and Hayden Bratland won the program’s first two state titles during last year’s tournament.
Bratland is another major reason why the 2026-27 season could be the year that Ankeny ascends to the top of the 2A team standings.
While Engebretson has graduated, Bratland returned to Ankeny looking to defend her 140-pound title in her junior season. An injury during the Central Iowa Kickoff in November led to Bratland having her season end early after undergoing elbow surgery, but she will be back next year.
“I’ve coached a lot of years and I’ve coached a lot of teams, but our team chemistry, our bonding, the time we want to spend together and the fun we have will forever be etched into my memory,” Roland said.
Ankeny also spent the entirety of the season without junior Mady Postma, who is recovering from an ACL injury. She’ll also return to the lineup for her senior season.
So add a former state champion into the mix with two other returning champions in 2026-27, and things are already looking good for Ankeny.
But that doesn’t include the rest of the returning talent for the team that is bound to make another leap.
Ankeny will return sophomores Haley Togba and Karlie Kruse, who both found their way to the podium at this year’s tournament.
Kruse was new to the program coming into the season and she fit right in at 125 pounds as a replacement for Engebretson. Kruse went 3-3 at the tournament and placed sixth overall after dropping a 1-0 decision to Cedar Falls’ Jobie Conway in the fifth-place match, finishing with a 41-10 record.
Togba was able to find her spot in the lineup and qualified for the tournament at 140 with Bratland sidelined by her injury.
Togba posted back-to-back consolation victories by fall to clinch her status as a placewinner. She was bested by fall during the seventh-place matchup against Cedar Rapids Kennedy’s Meredith Kaump, finishing the season at 31-15.
“I thought she was a year out from having the success she had this year,” Roland said. “Once again, don’t sleep on (the girls) because they’ll prove me wrong. (Togba) put the time in and really turned the corner throughout the course of the season.”
Aysia Moser didn’t qualify for the tournament during her sophomore season, but Roland and company believed in their junior at 235 pounds and it paid off.
Moser qualified for the tournament, won her first-round matchup by fall and had a chance to battle back for third place before suffering a fall with an 11-0 lead against North Scott’s Sage Dzeladini in a third-round consolation match.
She capped off her tournament by pinning Council Bluffs Lincoln’s Lilian Miller in 1:25, allowing her to place seventh and finish with a 42-10 mark.
Although her tournament ended on Thursday, Ankeny junior Aliayah Shade will be another returning state qualifier to the 2026-27 lineup.
“The goal from here on out and the expectation in our program is (to win the state title),” Roland said. “We haven’t won one and people may laugh (at the goal), but that’s the goal and that has to be the goal because we’ve been second. Anything less than winning the state title would be selling these girls short, and they deserve better than that.”
The two biggest blows that Ankeny faces are the impending graduations of state qualifiers Nora Bockes and Trudy Haag.
Bockes got the No. 10 seed at 115, yet worked her way to the semifinals after coming off an appearance in the state title match as a junior.
She lost by a 10-0 major decision to eventual runner-up Kate Seery of Linn-Mar in the semifinals, but turned it around to reach the third-place match by posting a fall over Spencer’s Jada Mingus-Alfaro in the consolation semifinals.
“In the moment, Nora Bockes is the most decorated Ankeny girls’ wrestler in history,” Roland said. “Four-time state qualifier, three-time placewinner and No. 1 in our heart.”
Bockes’ season ended with a loss by fall to Iowa City Liberty’s Kate Eggleston in the third-place match. She finished at 23-6.
Haag placed fifth at 120 just a year ago, but ran into some tough matchups that brought an early end to her run at the tournament.
Bockes, Haag and fellow senior Jaedyn Stites are what Roland dubs as the “godmothers” of Ankeny girls’ wrestling.
“Those are the three girls that started this program and stuck with this program since day one,” Roland said. “We’ll forever be grateful for them. We hurt for Trudy. Trudy is a wonderful human and that’s the thing about our program, they’re really good wrestlers and better humans. Trudy Haag will go on to do great things in her life, and she’ll always be welcomed into our room.”
