PELLA — The Central College wrestling team rattled off a 31-9 win over Luther College on Senior Night on Thursday, with a trio of seniors leading the charge with wins.

Central is now 9-4 on the season with a 4-3 mark in American Rivers Conference matches. The Norse are 8-5 (3-4 conference).

"Luther is a good team that we have a lot of respect for," coach Eric Van Kley said. "I told our team that if we were going to win tonight we were going to have to earn it because they weren't going to give it to us."

Shandon Akeo (senior, Honolulu, Hawaii, Kapolei HS) brought the crowd in P.H. Kuyper Gymnasium to its feet with seven takedowns in his 133-pound match before registering a fall with four seconds left in the match.

"He really got things started for us," Van Kley said. "He started us not just winning but winning dominantly and really getting after our offense hard. Our team fed off that."

Representing the Dutch in a home dual for the first time in his career, Cooper Stigsell (senior, Litchfield Park, Ariz., Verrado HS) snagged a 15-2 major decision at 174 pounds. It was also the first time in his Central career wrestling at 174 pounds after spending most of his career at 184 and 197.

"Cooper has transformed his body and his mind to put himself in position to really wrestle well at 174, a weight class he's never made here," Van Kley said. "He's worked for three months to put himself in position for this night. He brought a lot of energy to the mat."

Samuel Zook (senior, Oak Harbor, Wash.) won the final match of the night by injury default. Central also recognized Chase Poston (senior, 133 pounds, Olympia, Wash.), Carlos Posas (senior, 125 pounds, Madera, Calif., South HS) and Eric Santana (senior, 141 pounds, Palm Desert, Calif.) on Senior Night.

Rob Areyano (senior, Selma, Calif.) won with a first-period pin at 149 pounds while Brock Beck (sophomore, 141 pounds, Grinnell), Colby Tool (freshman, 165 pounds, Reasnor, PCM HS) and Peyton Hammerich (junior, 184 pounds, Princeton, Ill.) all won by decision.

Central has a triangular in Oskaloosa next Wednesday against William Penn University and Schreiner University (Texas). The Dutch also have a dual at Simpson Thursday night and host the Last Chance Invitational on Friday night.

"It's a big time of the year," Van Kley said. "We've said since the beginning of the year that we needed to get better each and ever week and I think we have done that. We wrestled as well tonight as we have all year but we still need to build off of this for next week."