A-P/GC honored its six seniors, all from Grundy Center, and the Falcons blew by Oelwein and South Hardin-BCLUW in what is believed to be the first varsity wrestling meet held at Grundy Center High School in nearly 20 years.

A-P/GC blanked a small Oelwein squad, 82-0, and rolled up the Storm, 63-15, in the night’s main event. The Storm cruised by Oelwein, 60-15, in the other dual of the triangular.

The night was special not just for the group of Justin Knaack, Dylan Knaack, Kasey Seitz, Trent Cakerice, Clay Saak and Harry Brekunitch but for a proud contingent of past and present Spartans. Grundy Center crowned five state champions as an independent squad, and was perhaps most notably led by coach John Doak, who was also a co-founder of the long-running wrestling magazine The Predicament.

“This is something we won’t forget,” Justin Knaack said. “And to share it with these guys is one of the highlights of my year so far.”

T-R PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER - SH-BCLUW’s Sean May, top, takes A-P/GC’s Trent Cakerice to the mat on his way to a 9-3 win by decision during their 285-pound bout on Thursday in Grundy Center.

A-P/GC head coach Joel Reints is an A-P grad who took the head coaching position when this group of seniors were freshmen.

“I don’t know what coaching wrestling is like without them,” Reints said. “They’re so special to me, and this is a special night for them. This program is in the state that it is because of these six, and I’m proud that they had a great night tonight.”

The Huskies surrendered eight forfeits and five of the six head-to-head matches ended in pinfall victories for A-P/GC’s Klayton Freed, Creyton Eberhart, Maison Copp, Jesse Brouwer and Trent Cakerice. Justin Knaack added an 8-0 major decision.

The Falcons only received one forfeit against the Storm at 120 but still pinned their way to success, with nine falls for A-P/GC including a 12-second blitz by Kael Edwards at 106.

The Knaack twins were a combined 4-0 with two pins, one major and one forfeit.

“I knew my opponent had a great record, I just had to go out there and prove that I was better and work my hardest,” Dylan Knaack said of his first-period pin of Beau Towne.

Justin added: “You never really know looking at records and my first guy [Oelwein’s Regan McKeeman], I wasn’t quite expecting it, but I was familiar with [SH-BCLUW’s Chance Cordes], I knew what guys like that wanted to do out there so I just went out there and did as best I could.”

Copp and Brouwer also went 2-0 in their head-to-head matches on Thursday.

“We did a great job, I don’t know how many more superlatives I can throw at it,” Reints said. “We’re an aggressive team, we practice hard and it shows up when we compete.”

SH-BCLUW heavyweight Sean May played spoiler to an A-P/GC senior sweep, grinding out a 9-3 decision over Cakerice in an intense big-man bout.

“We knew we’d have to score early,” SH-BCLUW co-head coach Jacob Groeneveld said, “push the pace. We feel like we’re a really well-conditioned team that can break teams down on the opposite side of the mat.”

Cakerice appeared to have May tossed in a headlock for back points and a possible pin but the move was ruled illegal and May slipped out of other attempts to build on his lead as the match winded down.

“It’s not easy to wrestle a kid that many times,” Reints said. “He got one on us last year as well. I thought we had him on his back, the ref didn’t see it that way. … Trent just needs to learn from it, move on and hopefully you get a chance to see him down at state.”

May won both of his matches on Thursday, as did 165-pounder Sam Garber and Alex Paxson at 175.

“Sam missed all last year with a knee injury so he’s behind the eight-ball catching up this year, but he’s finally starting to hit his stride,” Groeneveld said. “Alex’s as consistent as they come. He struggled with his offense last year and a bit this year, he can hand fight, ride out and is good at getting out from the bottom but we need to continue to improve on him getting to his scores.”

A-P/GC 82, Oelwein 0

106–Kael Edwards (APGC) won by forfeit; 113–Owen Primus (APGC) won by forfeit; 120–Aiden Merrill (APGC) won by forfeit; 126–Carter Liston (APGC) won by forfeit; 132–Gage Miller (APGC) won by forfeit; 138–Elias Cakerice (APGC) won by forfeit; 144–Justin Knaack (APGC) major dec. Regan McKeeman, 8-0; 150–Dylan Knaack (APGC) won by forfeit; 157–Ryder Slifer (APGC) won by forfeit; 165–Klayton Freed (APGC) pinned Cooper Reisner, :40; 175–Creyton Eberhart (APGC) pinned Hayden Rummel, 1:53; 190–Maison Copp (APGC) pinned Nolan Lamphier, 5:47; 215–Jesse Brouwer (APGC) pinned Wyatt Hitchcock, 1:16; 285–Trent Cakerice (APGC) pinned Spencer Michels, :48.

SH-BCLUW 60, Oelwein 15

113–Will Feldpausch (Storm) won by forfeit; 120–no match; 126–Maverick Grafke (Storm) won by forfeit; 132–Zaden Eggers (Storm) won by forfeit; 138–Ethan Lindsey (Storm) won by forfeit; 144–Chance Cordes (Storm) won by forfeit; 150–Regan McKeeman (O) dec. Beau Towne 4-2; 157–Wyatt Guiles (Storm) won by forfeit; 165–Sam Garber (Storm) pinned Cooper Reisner, 1:16; 175–Alex Paxson (Storm) pinned Hayden Rummel, 1:10; 190–Nolan Lamphier (O) pinned Manning Pfantz, 3:26; 215–Wyatt Hitchcock (O) pinned Sawyer Kane, 3:50; 285–Sean May (Storm) pinned Spencer Michels, :40; 106–Jayden Muschick (Storm) won by forfeit.

A-P/GC 63, SH-BCLUW 15

120–Merrill (APGC) won by forfeit; 126–Liston (APGC) pinned Grafke, 1:36; 132–Miller (APGC) pinned Eggers, 4:48; 138–Parker Mulder (APGC) pinned Lindsey, 1:15; 144–J. Knaack (APGC) pinned Cordes, 1:38; 150–D. Knaack (APGC) pinned Towne, 1:07; 157–Slifer (APGC) pinned Guiles, :40; 165–Garber (Storm) pinned Freed, 4:57; 175–Paxson (Storm) pinned McBride, 2:50; 190–Copp (APGC) pinned Pfantz, 2:22; 215–Brouwer (APGC) pinned Kane, 1:02; 285–May (Storm) dec. T. Cakerice, 9-3; 106–Edwards (APGC) pinned Jayden Muschick, :12; 113–Primus (APGC) dec. Feldpausch, 12-7.