Sparta edges Lancaster to win Lancaster Invite, JV just short against Black River Falls

Sparta came up big in their third place matches to keep host Lancaster at bay as they took home their fourth straight Lancaster Invite title. The Spartans finished with 326 points to Lancaster's 295. Dubuque Walhert was third with 219.5 and Viroqua fourth with 203.5.Sparta did not have any individual champions, but they did have nine wrestlers finish in the top three. Sparta was trailing Lancaster for most of the day until a strong consolation round put them ahead of the hosts and then winning six of nine third place matches sealed the deal.Brock Polhamus, Kyle Burkhalter and Chris Beeler all met tough competition in their championship bouts. Polhamus was pinned by Lancaster's Kyle Mezera in 1:14, Burkhalter was pinned in 5:26 by Fennimore's Logan Chappell and Beeler dropped a 4-1 decision to Richland Center's Logan Schmidt. Mezera is ranked third at 120 pounds in division three according to Wisconsin Wrestling Online, Chappell sixth in D3 at 182 and Schmidt 8th at 285.Winning their third place matches for the Spartans were John Roddick, Tristan Zurfluh, Derek VonRuden, Paul Vantassel, Toby Mosley and Greg Skon. Coming in fourth were Dylan Winchel, Michael Murnane and Dan Dawley.  Summarized results are below...106  --  Dylan Winchel, 4th place, 3-2 with two pins113  --  John Roddick, 3rd place, 4-1 with a pin, tech fall and major decision120  --  Brock Polhamus, 2nd Place, 3-1 with a pin126  --  Tristan Zurfluh, 3rd Place, 4-1 with a major decision132  --  Derek VonRuden, 3rd Place, 4-1 with two pins138  --  Paul Vantassel, 3rd Place, 4-1 with a major decision145  --  Michael Murnane, 4th Place, 3-2 with a tech fall152  --  Toby Mosley, 3rd Place, 4-1 with a pin160  --  Bob Ragan, 5th Place, 3-2 with a pin170  --  Greg Skon, 3rd Place, 3-1 with a pin182  --  Kyle Burkhalter, 2nd Place, 3-1 with two pins195  --  Dan Dawley, 4th Place, 2-2 with a pin220  --  Logan Degenhardt, 5th Place, 1-2 with a pin285  --  Chris Beeler, 2nd Place, 3-1For full match-by-match results, click here.It was the fourth straight year the Spartans won the Lancaster Invite. There were a ton of byes today.  At 285, Chris Beeler received byes all the way into his semifinal match. The reason some of the records above are different for different wrestlers even if they received the same place is that in order for a bye to count as a win on the wrestler's record, they must win the match following the bye. If they lose, the bye does not count as a win.Also on Saturday, the varsity reserve wrestled a dual against Black River Falls and were leading until the final match before giving up a pin and losing 32-28. It was a solid effort for the varsity reserve. Results from that dual is below...138  --  Julius Julson defeated David Stahl (BRF) 15-2145  --  Matt McLinn (BRF) defeated Margo Degenhardt 8-7152  --  Dillon Erickson pinned Jacob Peterson (BRF) 5:22160  --  Duston Krapata-Ball (BRF) tech falled Lucas Peters 23-8, 6:00170  --  DOUBLE FORFEIT182  --  Dillan Bunde (BRF) pinned Walker Polhamus 2:36195  --  DOUBLE FORFEIT220  --  Chase Bernett pinned Kody Cleveland (BRF) 0:24285  --  DOUBLE FORFEIT106  --  Justin Marx won by forfeit113  --  Zak Marcellus won by forfeit120  --  David Gorksi (BRF) pinned Steven Kelly 5:15126  --  Brady Gartner (BRF) pinned Corey Bronner 1:00132  --  Keith Dawley (BRF) pinned Austin Anderson 2:10The Spartans are now off until Thursday when they wrestle Onalaska at home. JV wrestles at 6:15pm with the varsity following at 7:30pm. There will be no live blog for the Onalaska dual. The team championship today at Lancaster is the Spartans' second team title of the year. They also took first at the Reedsburg Dual Invite. Congrats Spartans on a great day!