It is time for the Club to accept nominations for Officers.  In order to maintain continuity on the board, we will only be accepting nominations for the following offices this year:

• Vice President
• Secretary
• Volunteer Coordinator
• Youth Coordinator
• Alumni Coordinator

Anyone interested in nominating someone for one of the offices listed above can do so by replying to this email or in person at the next club meeting on May 14th at 7:00 pm in the HS Cafeteria.  You can self nominate.  We want to encourage people to nominate themselves for positions they are interested in.

Nominations will close on May 14th at the conclusion of the meeting.  The Board will consolidate nominees and vote on the new officers and announce the new board after the June meeting.

Below is a brief description of the duties of the 4 offices.

• Vice-President – The Vice-President, next in rank, assists the president in the performance of his duties.  In the absence of the President, the Vice-President shall perform the duties of the President.  The Vice-President shall also perform other duties as assigned by the President.  If there is a vacancy in the office of the President, the Vice-president shall succeed in office.
• Secretary – The secretary shall keep and distribute minutes of the Board of Directors meetings as well as any special meetings called. The Secretary shall assist the President in ensuring all Board members are aware of meeting dates, times, and issues to be discussed. The Secretary shall serve as the alternate Treasurer should the elected Treasurer be unable to make a scheduled meeting, or the Treasurer position be vacated.
• Volunteer Coordinator – The volunteer coordinator will work with the various level coordinators (Youth, MS, HS, and Alumni) to coordinate various events supported by the Club by organizing, recruiting and assigning parents/students to assist with the various events supported by the Club.
• Youth Coordinator – The youth coordinator will represent the youth level of participation at the meetings and assist the Volunteer Coordinator in recruiting and assigning parents/students to assist with the various events supported by the Club.
• Alumni Coordinator – The alumni coordinator will represent the alumni of wrestling at the meetings and assist the Volunteer Coordinator in recruiting and assigning parents/students to assist with the various events supported by the Club.

If you have any question please email spartawrestlingclub@yahoo.com.

Again, to nominate send a message to spartawrestlingclub@yahoo.com or attend the May 14th meeting.

Spartan senior Margo Degenhardt finished second in the 146-pound weight class at the United States Girls Wrestling Association national championships to become the highest finishing Spartan at any national high school tournament.  Degenhardt went 9-1 on the weekend and advanced to the championship match before falling 10-3 to Doylestown, Ohi’s Hannah Hall in the championship match.  Hall was a national runner-up in 2011 losing in overtime at 142 pounds to Durand, Michigan’s Crystal Borrow.

Degenhardt’s finish was the second highest of any wrestler from Wisconsin.  Only Racine’s Jamie Reif, the national champion at 128 pounds, finished ahead of Degenhardt.  Here is how the final standings played out for Degenhardt’s bracket…

1st – Hanna Hall (Doylestown, OH) dec. Margo Degenhardt (Cashton, WI) 10-3.
2nd – Margo Degenhardt (Cashton, WI) dec. Alyssa Boyer (Braidwood, IL) 5-4.
3rd – Alyssa Boyer (Braidwood, IL) dec. Devan Burke (Fife Lake, MI) 5-0.
4th – Devan Burke (Fife Lake, MI) pinned Brandi Dale (Dayton, OH) 0:43.
5th – Brandi Dale (Dayton, OH) maj.dec. Tamara Cushman (Monmouth, ME) 15-6.
6th – Tamara Cushman (Monmouth, ME) dec. Josie Markham (Whitewater, WI) 6-3.
7th – Josie Markham (Whitewater, WI) pinned Kadiyah Muhammad (Hampton, VA) 0:53.
8th – Kadiyah Muhammad (Hampton, VA) pinned Ariana Oliva (Bonner Springs, KS) 1:11.
9th – Ariana Oliva (Bonner Springs, KS).

And here’s how Margo did in her 10 matches…

• Round 1  –  Defeated Alyssa Boyer of Illinois 5-4
• Round 2  –  Pinned Josie Markem of Whitewater, WI
• Round 3  –  Pinned Deven Burke of Michigan
• Round 4  –  Pinned Brandi Dale of Ohio
• Round 5  –  Pinned Ariana Oliva of Kansas
• Round 6  –  Pinned Virginia’s Kadiyah Muhammad
• Round 7  –  Pinned Maine’s Tamara Cushman
• Round 8  –  Lost 10-3 to Ohio’s Hannah Hall
• Round 9  –  BYE

Margo’s second place finish is an improvement from last year when she placed 4th at 152 pounds.  Congrats Margo on your second place finish!

Sorry for the lack of updates lately.  I have a lot I want to post about, but this new baby of mine is taking up a lot of time.  With that said, we do have some pretty big news from Michigan.  Spartan senior Margo Degenhardt went 5-0 at the first day of the United States Girls Wrestling Association National Championships in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

Here’s how Margo did on day one at 146 pounds…

• Round 1  –  Defeated Alyssa Boyer of Illinois 5-4
• Round 2  –  Pinned Josie Markem of Whitewater, WI
• Round 3  –  Pinned Deven Burke of Michigan
• Round 4  –  Pinned Brandi Dale of Ohio
• Round 5  –  Pinned Ariana Oliva of Kansas

Today, Margo has four matches with the last being a bye.  It looks like it will be a showdown between Degenhardt and Ohio’s Hannah Hall, who won all four of her matches Saturday.  Hall must be wrestling up a weight as she is currently the top ranked wrestler at 139 pounds according to the USGWA rankings. Degenhardt is the top ranked wrestler at 154 pounds according to the same poll.

Check back here later today to see results from today’s wrestling!  Go Margo!

Margo Degenhardt won her third straight Wisconsin state girls wrestling title and will take her top ranking in the country at 155 pounds to Michigan on April 1st.  Here’s how Degenhardt fared in Kenosha at the Wisconsin USGWA Girls Wrestling State Championships.

• 1st Place  –  Degenhardt pinned Mia Calamari (Barrington, IL) in 5:36
• Prelims  –  Degenhardt pinned Brooke Youngs (Rio, WI) in 1:52
• Prelims  –  Degenhardt major decisioned Justice Powell (Waukesha, WI) 19-5

Spartans Dylan Winchel, Michael Murnane and Toby Mosley were all named first-team all-conference Saturday as the Spartans saw 10 wrestlers bring home conference recognition.  Second team all-conference award winners for the Spartans included Tristan Zurfluh, Kyle Burkhalter, Dan Dawley and Chris Beeler.  Receiving honorable mention were John Roddick, Brock Polhamus and Derek VonRuden.  The conference’s wrestler of the year was La Crosse Central’s Ben Thornton while Holmen coach Jason Lulloff received coach of the year for leading Holmen to their first MVC championship since the 2000-01 season.

The entire MVC all-conference roster is below.

First Team All Conference
106  –  Dylan Winchel
113  –  Ben Thornton (La Crosse Central)
120  –  Darius Wright (Holmen)
126  –  Sam Schank (Holmen)
132  –  James Bennett (Holmen)
138  –  Stefan Jobe (La Crosse Logan)
145  –  Michael Murnane
152  –  Toby Mosley
160  –  Jacob Dubord (Tomah)
170  –  Tyler Westphal (Holmen)
182  –  Mike Von Haden (Tomah)
195  –  Joe Inglett (Holmen)
220  –  Lucas Stromberg-Windau (Tomah)
285  –  Hunter Hauser (Holmen)

Second Team All-Conference
106  –  Patrick Adler (Tomah)
113  –  Jordan Corcoran (Aquinas)
120  –  Gabe Kapanke (La Crosse Logan)
126  –  Tristan Zurfluh
132  –  Kyle McKenzie (La Crosse Logan)
138  –  Michael Keilen (La Crosse Central)
145  –  Grant Parker (Onalaska)
152  –  Avery Hackett (Holmen)
160  –  Tyler Wolfert (La Crosse Logan)
170  –  Jordan Reisinger (Tomah)
182  –  Kyle Burkhalter
195  –  Dan Dawley
220  –  Tyler Shockey (Holmen)
285  –  Chris Beeler

Honorable Mention All Conference
106  –  Tyler Wood (Onalaska)
113  –  John Roddick
120  –  Brock Polhamus
132  –  Derek VonRuden
132  –  Ryan Stalsberg (Holmen)
138  –  Dan Niccum (Holmen)
145  –  John Paul Soldner (Aquinas)
145  –  Josh Johnson (La Crosse Logan)
170  –  Duncan McKinney (Holmen)
182  –  Joel Viner (Onalaska)
182  –  Ben Fiers (Holmen)
182  –  Sam McCormick (La Crosse Logan)
220  –  Kyle Sieck (Aquinas)
285  –  Dakota Steves (Tomah)

Check out a ton of new photos from the state wrestling tournament–about 50 new ones in all–from Joe Koshollek and Sam Rodriguez. A link to the gallery will always be present on the Spartanwrestling.com photos page.

2012 State Tournament – Images by Derek Montgomery

This is a little fun video of what people sound like when they don’t know anything about wrestling but try to sound like they do.  A far cry from the great job that Dale Stafslien and Bill Tourdot did this past season when covering the Spartans.  Enjoy.

Watch more videos on Flowrestling

The Spartans have faced their fair share of top competition this year.  They wrestled Minnesota’s Simley, one of the top teams in the country in mid-January at the Bob Swalla Memorial Duals in Kasson-Mantorville earlier this year.  They followed that dual by taking the top ranked team in Minnesota Class A, Jackson County Central, to the wire in a 35-27 loss.  In the opening round of the WIAA team state tournament, the Spartans would see more of that competition.

Facing arguably the best team in Wisconsin, Sparta fell 56-12 to the 46th ranked team in the country in Luxemburg-Casco (LC).  LC defeated the division one state team champions, Wisconsin Rapids, in a dual earlier in the season.  After the dual with Sparta, LC went on to defeat Ellsworth 41-13 in the team state finals.

Two of the bright spots for the Spartans in the dual against LC were Dylan Winchel and Brock Polhamus’ pins for the Spartans.  The win for Dylan was his 48th of the year, which tied him for second all-time with Jordan Stanek for most wins in a single season.  Winchel was two wins short of Matt Tourdot’s record mark of 50.

With the loss to LC, the Spartans finish the year with a 20-4 dual record.  We’ll be posting a recap of the season along with videos of the entire duals against Evansville/Albany and Lodi from team sectionals.  Lots on top here in the next week.

Congrats Spartans on a great season!  You’ve overcome two straight years of losses at team sectionals and now the work begins to maintain what was accomplished this year and to continue to improve going forward.  With the support that was shown this year and the talent returning, there is no reason this cannot continue for a long time!

Here are a few more photos from the state tournament. There are more to come this weekend…

We’ll also have a preview for Saturday’s dual against Luxemburg-Casco coming later today.

I am always interested in listening to Coach Smith talk wrestling so I happened onto this clip. I like his quote right at the beginning….”If you don’t hate losing you’re in trouble”. Anyway he tells a few stories about his former coach and also about one of the former wrestlers in attendance, Johnny Thompson and his move called “The Snake”. Well I looked it up and found that it is a perfect move for the Winchel boys (Dylan and Jaden) and I’m sure would be good for others as well. So take a listen and look and enjoy some more wrestling stories and technique worth giving a try.

Watch more video of Myron Roderick Remembrance on flowrestling.org

Watch more video of Mike Krause on flowrestling.org