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Thursday, February 23, 2012 By Aly Cappaert
 Victory poster for Ross Larson. -
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The
2011-12 wrestling season came to a close last week for many wrestlers
at the state duals meet on Wednesday. The whole team competed in this
event together and took 5th place. Bettendorf took the 2012 team title
for the Dual Championships. For six wrestlers, though, the season didn’t
end until Friday or even Saturday. This year Ankeny qualified six
wrestlers to the individual state tournament which took place Thursday,
February 16 - Saturday, February 18. The qualifiers for Ankeny were
Austin Anderson (106), Sam Reichenbacker (120), Derrick Huber (145),
Carson Powell (170), Ross Larson (195), and Jordan Rouse (220).
Ankeny
came out to a slow start on Thursday, when Anderson and Reichenbacker
both were defeated in their first round matches. Both went on to get
victories in the second round to advance onto Friday. Huber, Powell,
Larson, and Rouse all won their first matches and advanced to the
quarterfinals on Friday. In the quarterfinals, the Hawks came out with
only one victory with Ross Larson at 195. Carson Powell lost in the
quarterfinals, but came back strong to eventually beat Ben Schwery of
Lewis Central and take third place for the Hawks.
Ross
Larson continued his mission for the championship Friday evening in the
semifinals. In his semifinal match, Larson defeated Keaton Jurevitz of
Bettendorf 19-4. With that victory, Larson went on to the finals on
Saturday night. Finals started around 6 p.m. Saturday, but by the time
the 195 weight class wrestled it was around 8:30 p.m. The two and a half
hour wait seemed to have little effect on Larson who pinned opponent
Bud Smith of Southeast Polk in 1:21. With this victory, he ended the
season 41-0, with only three matches going beyond the first period. This
was Larson’s second title. He also won it last year for Ballard.
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