Dylan Winchel and Toby Mosley both ran into tough semifinal competition and Derek VonRuden won his wrestleback as all three will be competing Saturday for chances at third place. Winchel fell 6-1 to Zach Sirny, a wrestler from Wautoma/Wild Rose with lots of state tournament experience. The senior 106 pounder was a runner-up last year and placed third two years ago. At 152 pounds, Toby Mosley fell 14-0 to defending state champion at 140 pounds in Sheboygan Falls’ Lucas Lambrecht. In the wrestleback round, Derek VonRuden stayed alive for another day with a thrilling 4-2 overtime victory against Prairie du Chien’s Sam Stormoen.
With all three advancing to the third day of the state tournament, each will set their sights on advancing to the third place bouts. For Dylan Winchel, that means defeating Freedom’s Cody Walrath (38-6). If Winchel defeats Walrath, he’ll wrestle for third. If he loses, he goes for fifth. The same applies to VonRuden and Mosley. At 132 pounds, Derek VonRuden will face off against Luxemburg-Casco’s Zach Skarda (44-9). This is an important match. It could very well be a preview of what’s to come at team state next week when the Spartans wrestle Luxemburg-Casco in the opening round of team state. If VonRuden wins, he’ll have a familiar opponent. On the other side of the bracket is a match between Monroe’s Kevin Klopfenstein and Ellsworth’s Roarke Langer. VonRuden is 1-1 against Klopfenstein this year with a 3-2 victory at the Reedsburg Dual Invite and a close loss in the sectional final a week ago. As for Langer, VonRuden fell 8-1 to him Friday morning. So it looks like VonRuden will be wrestling a familiar face no matter what happens in his next match.
Finally, at 152 pounds, Toby Mosley will wrestle Port Washington’s Jordan Dieringer (21-5). If Mosley wins, he’ll have the winner of Somerset’s Austin Bushinger (41-6) and Neillsville/Greenwood/Loyal’s Damien Luchterland (38-1) who lost his first match of the year 15-4 to Luxemburg-Casco’s Mike Uliana in Friday night’s semifinal. In the finals of the Sparta Invite, Luchterland won a close decision over Mosley by a score of 6-4.
Winchel, VonRuden and Mosley are guaranteed places on the podium. For VonRuden this has to be a tad surreal. DVR finished 3rd at regionals. In divisions two and three, only the top two advance to the next round, but an injury to Mauston’s Justin Dolata opened the door for DVR at sectionals. That was all he needed. DVR advanced to the sectional finals, lost a close 3-1 decision to Kevin Klopfenstein and now three matches into the state tournament, DVR has earned himself a spot on the podium.
While three Spartans advanced to the third day, John Roddick came up just short. Roddick lost 17-2 in his quarterfinal match to Oconto Falls’ Matthew Damp then dropped a 5-2 decision to Lodi’s John Joutras later in the day. That means Roddick will finish the individual state tournament and enter the team state tournament with a 40-14 record.
Among the many team and individual records this year that the team and individuals have set, the trio of Winchel, VonRuden and Mosley have their own special place in Spartan history. Heading into the last day of the state tournament, the three have amassed 137 wins between them. Winchel and VonRuden have 46 wins apiece while Mosley has 45. Coming into the season, only two wrestlers, Jordan Stanek with 48 and Matt Tourdot with 50, accumulated more victories in a single season than this trio. And they are far from over. Each have at least three more matches this year and at most four. It would be safe to say that these three along with freshman John Roddick, who became Sparta’s first freshman to crack 40 wins, make up one of the most formidable groups in Spartan history.
I won’t be around tomorrow to update the Spartan wrestling Facebook page so you’ll have to get updates through Trackwrestling.com or by watching the action live on Fox Sports Wisconsin.
Finally, here are some photos from today’s action. You can thank Joe Koshollek for capturing the action today. We’ll have more images later this weekend of today’s matches. Big thanks to Joe and everyone that helped us out. Best of luck to Dylan, Derek and Toby and GO SPARTANS!!!
