Spartans dominate regionals, send 10 to sectionals

Regionals
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Thanks to Shellie VonRuden for the photos!

For two years in a row, Sparta finished 6.5 points short of a regional title. Last year, the Spartans finished 6.5 points back of West Salem/Bangor for a spot at team sectionals.  This year they finished 201 points ahead of them en route to a dominating performance in Mauston that will see 10 Spartans heading to sectionals.  The Spartans finished with 256 points, which was 68 points better than second place Viroqua and 109 points better than third place Westfield Area.Heading to sectionals are champions Corey Zimmerman, Christian Lamon, John Roddick, Jaden Winchel, Brock Polhamus, Hayden Krein and 2nd place finishers Brett VonRuden, Logan VanTassel, Walker Polhamus and Austin Zweifel.  Finishing just outside a trip to sectionals was David Hayes and Ryan Wisniewski who finished third while Keyshawn Stewart finished fourth.John Roddick had a taxing day wrestling two matches and picking up a 37 second semifinal pin and a 33 second pin in the finals. At 132 pounds, Jaden Winchel wrestled a total of 2:17 with his semifinal pin in 1:51 and a victory by injury default in the finals in 26 seconds.  With the win, Winchel now improves to 40-0 on the year.  The last Spartan wrestler to start 40-0 was Matt Tourdot during the 2009-10 season in a season where he finished 50-0 and a state champion.At 106, Corey Zimmerman continued to impress picking up a first place finish with a semifinal pin in 1:31 followed by a third period pin of Viroqua's Jansen McClelland (34-11).  Zimmerman is now 14-3 since stepping up to varsity last month.  At 120 pounds, the return of Christian Lamon was a smashing success.  Lamon had to work for it with a 7-3 victory in the semifinals over West Salem/Bangor's Noah Reedy (30-14) and an 8-5 victory in the finals over Mauston's Jarret Dolata (27-10).  Not bad for a guy who had not wrestled in over a month. At 138 pounds, Brett VonRuden pinned his way to the finals before falling to Cole Clark of Adams-Friendship (39-3) by a close 6-4 score.  Clark had defeated VonRuden 9-5 in the finals of the Sparta Invite about a month ago.  VonRuden won his 2nd place match by rule to advance.Click on the thumbnail below to see video of the Spartans in action courtesy of WKBT.