Messenger photo by Britt Kudla Kody Cook of Fort Dodge wrestles at the Rick Caldwell Waverly-Shell Rock Invitational on Saturday afternoon in Waverly. For more photos, please visit CU.messengernews.net

WAVERLY — The third-ranked (Class 3A) Fort Dodge wrestling team clinched a second-place finish here on Saturday at the Rick Caldwell Invitational, placing behind only No. 1 Waverly-Shell Rock.

The Go-Hawks recorded 268.5 points, with the short-handed Dodgers racking up 205. No. 5 Iowa City West, Saint Ansgar and Boone rounded out the Top-5.

“This was a good opportunity to see Waverly-Shell Rock in particular,” FDSH head coach Bobby Thompson said. “We competed well for the most part. We had some tough matches and won some nice consolation matches.”

Fort Dodge’s Drake Ayala, Carson Taylor and Dreyzon Phillips had three straight championship match wins starting at 120 pounds.

The top-ranked Ayala, a junior, finished off his day with a fall over Parker McBride of Iowa City West in just over a minute after picking up two technical falls at 120 pounds. The defending state champion is now 31-0 on the year.

Taylor, also a defending state champ who is ranked second, had two falls to win the 126-pound bracket. Both of his victories came in just over a minute each, as the senior is now 27-2 overall.

Phillips had two falls and a technical fall at 138 pounds, improving to 26-6 on the season.

“Drake, Carson and Dreyzon all wrestled well and did what they’ve been doing: taking care of business,” Thompson said. “We had a lot of good performances from several others as well.”

Lane Cowell (113), Brandon Mills (145) and Kody Cook (152) were all second, with Max Bishop (106) and Savion Wheat (160) placing third. Cowell was edged in the finals by top-ranked Bailey Roybal, 6-5.

Fort Dodge was without seventh-ranked Brooks Cowell (132) and No. 2 Levi Egli (195). Cowell missed weight by less than one half a pound, and Egli is sidelined until districts with a broken hand.

Dylan Zimmermann (170), Austin Lee (182), Kaden Lynch (195) and Colten Munter (285) were fourth.

The Dodgers are back in action on Monday, heading to Mason City to face the Mohawks before competing Friday at the CIML Invitational in Pleasant Hill.