The regional groups and sectional pairings for 2010 were recently released.  Sparta finds itself once again in a regional with Adams-Friendship, Mauston, Viroqua, West Salem/Bangor, Westfield Area and Wisconsin Dells.  The regional will take place in Adams-Friendship.

What changes from year to year is the pairings.  This year, should Sparta win their regional they would matchup with the winner of the regional that includes Belmont/Platteville, Cuba City/Southwestern, Dodgeville, Prairie du Chien, Richland Center and River Valley.  Last year, River Valley advanced out of this regional and won their first-round sectional match against Delavan-Darien, a team that is no longer in this sectional.

Lodi is paired opposite Sparta in a grouping that includes Columbus, Jefferson, Lake Mills, Lakeside Lutheran and Marshall.  They should advance out of this regional and face the winner of the regional that includes Belleville/Monticello/New Glarus, Brodhead/Juda, Edgerton, Evansville/Albany, Monroe, Parkview and Turner.

The team sectional in 2011 will be in Mauston.  Check out the pairings below…

SECTIONAL C – EVANSVILLE
Team Sectional – Mauston (I vs. III; II vs. IV)
REGIONAL I – ADAMS-FRIENDSHIP – Adams-Friendship, Mauston, Sparta, Viroqua, West Salem/Bangor, Westfield Area,
Wisconsin Dells.
REGIONAL II – LODI – Columbus, Jefferson, Lake Mills, Lakeside Lutheran, Lodi, Marshall.
REGIONAL III – RIVER VALLEY – Belmont/Platteville, Cuba City/Southwestern, Dodgeville, Prairie du Chien, Richland Center,
River Valley.
REGIONAL IV – BELLEVILLE/MONTICELLO/NEW GLARUS – Belleville/Monticello/New Glarus, Brodhead/Juda, Edgerton,
Evansville/Albany, Monroe, Parkview, Turner.

Eight Spartan kids qualified for the WWF Kids Folkstyle State Tournament back in March.  Yes, I know, this is coming terribly late.  The Spartan kids wrestled for two teams with five representing Sparta and three representing La Crosse Area Wrestling or LAW.  The five from Sparta were Blake Brooks, David Hayes, Brett Von Ruden, Justin Marx and Nickolas Church.  The free wrestling for LAW were John Roddick, Alice Todryk and Brock Polhamus.

Three Spartans medaled with Alice Todryk leading the way and bringing home a state championship.  Todryk won the three matches including a 52 second pin in the finals over Ithaca’s Morgan Wiedenfeld.  The way they do brackets at youth tournament is by age and weight.  Todryk won the Girls division with birthdates between 1998 and 2000.

Bringing home silver for Sparta was Brett Von Ruden in the 84-pound 1999-2000 division.  Von Ruden went 3-1 on the day before falling to Hortonville’s Elliot Luker 6-1 in the finals.  Sparta’s only other medalist was Brock Polhamus in the 100-pound 1997-98 division.  Polhamus went 4-2 on the day while losing to Mason Stokke of Menomonie twice.

Here is how the rest of the Spartans did in terms of their records on the day:  Blake Brooks (0-2), David Hayes (2-2), Justin Marx (1-2), Nickolas Church (1-2) and John Roddick (2-2).  Full results are after the pictures below.  Click on the pictures to see a larger version of each.  Thanks to Mike Roddick and the Bailey family for providing these images!!

NOTE:  Only the first five are from the state tournament while the rest are some pictures of the youth wrestlers in action throughout the year.  The team picture with only four coaches is the Pre-Kindergarten through 2nd grade group while the team picture with five coaches is the 3rd-8th grade group.

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2010 WWF Folkstyle Kids State Tournament

Boys Born 1999-2000 54 – Blake Brooks’s place is unknown and has scored 0.00 team points.
Champ. Round 1 – Austin Decorah (LaFollette Lancers) won by major decision over Blake Brooks (Sparta) (Maj 13-3)
Cons. Round 1 – Tyler Srp (Eau Claire) won by major decision over Blake Brooks (Sparta) (Maj 11-0)

Boys Born 1999-2000 69 – David Hayes’s place is unknown and has scored 7.00 team points.
Champ. Round 1 – David Hayes (Sparta) won by pin over Adrien Barton (Fondy) (Pin 4:00)
Quarterfinal – Julian Donnelly (Neenah) won by pin over David Hayes (Sparta) (Pin 1:25)
Cons. Round 2 – David Hayes (Sparta) won by pin over Gavin Wipperfurth (River Valley) (Pin 2:00)
Cons. Round 3 – Ryan Hannah (Viroqua) won by pin over David Hayes (Sparta) (Pin 2:00)

Boys Born 1999-2000 84 – Brett Von Ruden’s place is 2nd and has scored 18.00 team points.
Champ. Round 1 – Brett Von Ruden (Sparta) won by decision over Connor Hunter (Markesan) (Dec 9-5)
Quarterfinal – Brett Von Ruden (Sparta) won by decision over Bryce Younger (New Richmond) (Dec 6-4)
Semifinal – Brett Von Ruden (Sparta) won by decision over Caleb Hopp (Fondy) (Dec 9-4)
1st Place Match – Elliott Luker (Hortonville) won by decision over Brett Von Ruden (Sparta) (Dec 6-1)

Boys Born 1997-1998 91 – Justin Marx’s place is unknown and has scored 2.00 team points.
Champ. Round 1 – Justin Marx (Sparta) won by decision over Devin Wiedenhoeft (Fort Atkinson ) (Dec 7-4)
Quarterfinal – Bailey VanHandel (Kaukauna) won by major decision over Justin Marx (Sparta) (Maj 13-0)
Cons. Round 2 – Isaiah Merrill (Oshkosh WILD WRESTLING) won by pin over Justin Marx (Sparta) (Pin 1:59)

Boys Born 2001-2002 69 – Nickolas Church’s place is unknown and has scored 2.00 team points.
Champ. Round 1 – Nickolas Church (Sparta Park & Rec) won by decision over Ian Wendt-Utrie (Waupun) (Dec 6-2)
Quarterfinal – John Diener (Kaukauna) won by pin over Nickolas Church (Sparta Park & Rec) (Pin 2:24)
Cons. Round 2 – Bryce Bosman (Luxemburg-Casco) won by major decision over Nickolas Church (Sparta Park & Rec) (Maj 11-0)

Girls Born 1998-2000 A – Alice Todryk’s place is 1st and has scored 22.00 team points.
Quarterfinal – Alice Todryk (LAW) won by decision over Emily Portschy (Plymouth) (Dec 7-2)
Semifinal – Alice Todryk (LAW) won by decision over Gabrielle Skidmore (Spooner) (Dec 3-2)
1st Place Match – Alice Todryk (LAW) won by pin over Morgan Wiedenfeld (Ithaca) (Pin 0:52)

Boys Born 1995-1996 85 – John Roddick’s place is unknown and has scored 4.00 team points.
Champ. Round 1 – John Roddick (LAW) won in double overtime over Hunter Hayes (Portage ) (2-OT 6-4)
Quarterfinal – Chad Osmanski (Bay Port) won by decision over John Roddick (LAW) (Dec 9-4)
Cons. Round 2 – John Roddick (LAW) won by major decision over Chance Eiting (Kaukauna) (Maj 10-2)
Cons. Round 3 – Jordan Corcoran (LAW) won by decision over John Roddick (LAW) (Dec 4-2)

Boys Born 1997-1998 100 – Brock Polhamus’s place is 4th and has scored 13.00 team points.
Champ. Round 1 – Brock Polhamus (LAW) won by major decision over Garrett White (West Bend) (Maj 9-0)
Quarterfinal – Mason Stokke (Menomonie) won by decision over Brock Polhamus (LAW) (Dec 2-1)
Cons. Round 2 – Brock Polhamus (LAW) won by decision over Brandon Forseth (Mineral Point) (Dec 4-1)
Cons. Round 3 – Brock Polhamus (LAW) won by major decision over Dylan Ristow (Waukesha) (Maj 12-2)
Cons. Semi – Brock Polhamus (LAW) won by decision over Sawyer Massie (Hudson) (Dec 1-0)
3rd Place Match – Mason Stokke (Menomonie) won by major decision over Brock Polhamus (LAW) (Maj 12-4)

Tourdot’s state championship run is in a group of six plays nominated for Play of the Week on WKBT.com.  Here is how you can help him win the contest…

1. Click the following link  http://bit.ly/acDu6u
2. To the right of the video, you will see the opinion poll.  Vote for “Sparta Wrestling.”
3. That’s it!

To see the video, you have to hit “Next” under the video to navigate to a very short collage of clips of Tourdot at state.  We’ll update you as to who wins Top Play of the Week when we know.

Margo Degenhardt wrapped up a Sunday of wrestling by finishing in 5th place at 146 pounds in the Women’s High School National Championships at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, MI.

Degenhardt finished 4-3 during her two days at the tournament.  Here is how she did on Sunday…

• 5th Round  –  Pinned Katie Wallace of North Carolina
• 6th Round  –  Bye
• 7th Round  –  Lost 10-8 to Brittany Goebels of Illinois

Margo pushed the top-ranked wrestler in the country in Goebels in her last match of the day.  The top-ranked Goebels will be heading to Oklahoma City University this fall on a full-ride for wrestling.  OCU has won the last two national championships in women’s wrestling.  Margo was by far the toughest match of the tournament for Goebels who surrendered only two points and won every match by pin before facing Degenhardt.

Congrats to Margo on a great tournament!

Margo Degenhardt during a JV match against La Crosse Logan in December 2009.

Spartan Margo Degenhardt is still alive after a 2-2 day at the Women’s High School National Championships.  Margo lost her first two matches today, but came right back with two straight victories.  Here is how she did today…

• 1st Round  –  Lost 12-4 to Emilii Russell of Tennessee (ranked 8th in nation)
• 2nd Round  –  Lost 5-1 to Kasey Kruczek of Pennsylvania (ranked 10th)
• 3rd Round  –  Won 9-6 over Chelsey Cash of Virginia
• 4th Round  –  Won 11-10 over Shanice Harris of Virginia (ranked 3rd)

Her victory over Harris was impressive considering she had only 20 minutes between matches.  That victory qualified her for three more matches tomorrow, which will include a bout against top-ranked Brittany Goebel of Illinois.

Check back here tomorrow to see the final results from Margo’s trip to nationals…

With Matt Tourdot’s 7th place finish at this weekend’s National High School Coaches Association’s Senior National Finals, he enters into an elite club of Wisconsin wrestlers to have medaled at this prestigious tournament.  Here’s a list of previous Wisconsin medal winners…

• 2003 – Josh Wagner (7th at 130), Sparta’s Trent Brooks lost to Wagner in the 2002 state finals at 119 pounds
• 2004 – Jordan Crass (7th at 125), Craig Henning (2nd at 145) and Dallas Herbst (3rd at 189)
• 2005 – Drew Hammond (7th at 103) and Max Askren (3rd at 189)
• 2006 – Trevor Brandvold (1st at 189)
• 2007 – None
• 2008 – Grant Sutter (6th at 112), Nick Hucke (3rd at 135) and Joe Budi (3rd at 189)
• 2009 – Nick Hager (5th at 140)
• 2010 – Matt Tourdot (7th at 215)

A few guys on the list above have gone onto become NCAA All-Americans and Max Askren was an NCAA champion this year at 184 pounds.  It doesn’t guarantee Tourdot success in college, but it shows he is definitely on the right track.

In other news, the La Crosse Tribune recently declared Tourdot the MVC Wrestler of the Year.  No surprise there as he was the lone state champion from the conference.  To read the article, click here.

The La Crosse Tribune also came out with their All-Tribune wrestling lineup.  Matt Tourdot and Brandon Rickert headlined their respective weight classes.  Here is what the Tribune had to say about each.  First on Rickert…

WHY HE’S HERE: Division 2 state qualifier. … sectional runner-up and regional champion. … fifth at Badger State. … went 4-0 (1 pin, 1 tech. fall, 2 majors) in MVC duals.

And on Tourdot…

WHY HE’S HERE: Division 2 state champ. … high school All-American in freestyle and folkstyle. … Division I Old Dominion recruit. … two-time state place-winner.

Earning honorable mention status on the All-Trib team was Adam Wiedl and Jordan Stanek.  To see the full All-Tribune wrestling lineup, click here.

11:53am —  Matt Tourdot closed out this year’s Senior Nationals with a victory by injury default over Kansas’ Kyle Caylor.  His victory yesterday over New York’s Kyle Colling secured All-American honors for the second straight year.  No Spartan has ever achieved high school All-American status before Tourdot and he has done it twice.

On the weekend, he was 5-2 and defeated the N0. 4 ranked wrestler in the country at 215 pounds in Colling.  His two losses were very close–one came in overtime in the tiebreaker rounds and the other by two-points this morning.  The kid he lost to by tiebreaker criteria in overtime is in the finals so Tourdot wrestled some tough competition and wrestled well.

If you’d like to view Tourdot’s bracket, click here…

Congrats to Matt on earning All-American honors!!

9:25am — Matt opened the day losing a close 4-2 match to Matt Loew from New York.  He will now face Kyle Caylor, the 6A State champion from Kansas, and former Junior National Champion for 7th Place.

5:40pm — Matt defeats Colling 3-1 in a tiebreaker!!! Colling is a 4X New York State Champion, National Champion, and University of Oklahoma recruit. Matt has earned All-American status and will wrestle again tomorrow, and could wrestle three more times as he goes for 3rd place.

5:30pm — Matt Tourdot began his consolation comeback defeating Endhyr Meza from California, 3-0. In his next match against the Kansas State Champion Taylor Wuthnow, Matt was victorious 5-0. One more win and Matt will be an All-American. He is scheduled to wrestle the #4 nationally ranked Kyle Colling from New York.

4:34pm —  Matt Tourdot has rebounded nicely from his overtime loss to win two consecutive matches.  He defeated Endhyr Meza of California 3-0 before shutting out Kansas’ Taylor Wuthnow’s 5-0.  Back in the championship bracket, the guy who Tourdot lost to in the final seconds of the second 30-second overtime has advanced to the finals.  That’s how close Tourdot was to competing for a national title.

Despite that, Tourdot is going for the next best thing, which is a 3rd place finish.  If he wins his next match today against New York’s Kyle Colling, he will secure All-American status for the second consecutive year.  Should he pull out the victory over Colling, Tourdot will have to win two more times to advance to the third place match.  Check back here later this evening for updates on Tourdot’s progress.

10:48am —  Matt Tourdot lost a very close match this morning to Michigan’s Nicholas McDiarmid 7-6 by tiebreaker.  This means they went past the first overtime into two 30 second overtimes.  McDiarmid scored on a two-point reversal at the edge of the mat as the 2nd 30 sec. period was ending to pull out the 7-6 win.

Tourdot will wrestle 3 more times later today and needs to win five straight matches to capture third place.  I’ll be away from the computer intermittently over the rest of the afternoon so updates might be delayed.  One more item of note is that Margo Degenhardt wrestles next weekend at the girls nationals and not this weekend as stated in the previous post.

5:38 pm —  Tourdot won his first match of the day by fall in 5:03 over Florida’s Filmore McMillan.  That sets up a showdown between the #15 ranked Matt Tourdot and the #14 ranked Nicholas McDiarmid after McDiarmid won his first match by fall in 1:04.  The winner advances to the quarterfinals.

2:30 pm —  Matt Tourdot received a bye in the first round of today’s senior nationals in Virginia.  In his first match he will face Filmore McMillan from Florida.  McMillan was a Class A champion at 215 pounds in Florida.  He barely won his state semifinal match by a 2-1 score before winning in the finals 6-2.  He is currently unranked by Intermatwrestle.com

If Tourdot wins his match against McMillan, he will likely face Michigan’s Nicholas McDiarmid.  According to Intermatwrestle.com, Tourdot is ranked 15th while McDiarmid is ranked 14th.  It looks to be a tough match for Tourdot.  Here is a scouting report on McDiarmid…

In terms of overall national experience, McDiarmid may be the most proven amongst this year’s senior class.  He has placed high at the Preseason Nationals, Super 32s, Fargo, and he wrestled well at the Disney Duals.  He was ranked 14th by Intermat in their January edition of the HS rankings, and many of the other top ranked guys will not be wrestling.  The only other three wrestlers featured in that poll that are entered to wrestle this weekend are #4 Kyle Colling of New York, #12 Kyle Caylor of Kansas and #16 Matt Tourdot of Wisconsin.  There is no reason to think that the MSU bound senior cannot contend for a title at this weight.

Ha!  If the writer of this report had seen Tourdot decimate Wisconsin competition this year, he would definitely have a reason to think twice.  Check back here later today for results from Tourdot’s afternoon competition.

We will also be updating how Margo Degenhardt does at the Women’s High School National Championships this weekend so check back here for that too!

Sparta celebrated one of the greatest seasons in the programs history last night with a banquet at Club 16.  A variety of awards were given out, dinner was served and it was a good time from what I’ve been told.  Here are some of the awards given out last night…

• MVC Wrestler of the Year  -  Matt Tourdot
• MVC 1st Team – Matt Tourdot, Brandon Brueggen, Jordan Stanek
• MVC 2nd Team – Adam Wiedl, Brandon Rickert, Toby Mosley, Derek VonRuden, Morgan Leis, Steve Stevenson
• MVC Honorable Mention – Bryce Nowaczyk, Tom Tourdot
• MVC Sportsmanship Award – Nick Winchel
• MVC Academic Awards – Nick Winchel, Tom Tourdot, Matt Tourdot, Toby Mosley, Bryce Nowaczyk, Derek VonRuden, Adam Wiedl
• Takedown Machines Award (60+ takedowns) – Brandon Rickert, Matt Tourdot, Morgan Leis
• Head Hunter Award (15+ pins) – Jordan Stanek, Matt Tourdot, Adam Wiedl, Steve Stevenson

The three 1st Team All-MVC wrestlers is the most for Sparta since they had five during the 2006-07 season.  Of the All-MVC wrestlers, six return next year in Brandon Rickert, Toby Mosley, Derek VonRuden, Morgan Leis, Bryce Nowaczyk and Tom Tourdot.

More to come…

Later this week, I’ll have another post with some pictures of some of the seniors through the years as well as some stats about their four years along with how the JV finished up this year and more.  There’s lots more to come in regards to this year.  If you attended the banquet, you’ll probably know most of the stuff already as it’s in the program, but for those of you not fortunate enough to make it to Club 16 last night, these posts will be for you!

And to top off this post, here are some photos from the day after the state wrestling tournament when the four state qualifiers took the traditional firetruck ride through downtown Sparta…