The ACGC wrestling team had high hopes of turning in some good performances at their annual home invitational Saturday. While the gold and black turned in four top-five finishes, they lost 113-pounder Seth Danker for the season due to a broken arm.

The sophomore suffered the injury during his quarterfinal bout with Panorama’s Logan Christe. The 2018 state qualifier in the 106 pound weight class will see his season come to a disappointing finish with a record of 22-10. Classmate Cale Rowley also suffered an injury during the tournament, though he should be active for this coming Saturday’s sectional competition. The Chargers were also without senior standout Blaine Beeler. Beeler failed to make weight prior to the tournament and was thus ineligible to participate in 120 pound division.

There were some positives to balance the setbacks however. Chief among those was senior Gabe Rowley’s 100th career victory. That came over Riverside’s Josh Mansfield in the 2nd consolation round after a pin fall at 3:50. Rowley would add another in the 5th place match with a 9-8 decision victory over Nodaway Valley’s Austin Wilson.

Three other Chargers placed in the top five. Sophomore Gunnar Larsen defeated Tyler Haynes of Van Meter-Earlham by a 6-3 decision to claim 3rd place. Senior Easton Benson also wrapped up a 3rd place finish with an 11-5 decision win over West Central Valley’s Weston Pote. The other top-five finish went to senior Ben Kingery. Kingery won the 5th place match by a 10-9 decision over Nevada’s Jacob MacVey.

The Chargers scored a team total of 77 points, finishing in 13th place out of 19 in the varsity competition. Clarion-Goldfield-Dows was the team champion with 236.5 points. The Chargers will host the Class 1A Section 3 tournament on Saturday, February 2nd.