Sparta jumped out to a 14-6 lead after four matches following a victory by Jaden Winchel, technical fall by Hayden Krein and pin by James Gann. The Vikings would take the four of the next five matches to build a 24-18 lead heading into the 113-pound match.
Jon Bailey was dominant in a 12-2 decision over Holmen’s Carson Eikenberry who was attached from the bottom to Bailey’s forearm for a majority of the match. Bailey’s victory brought Sparta to within 24-22 before Holmen rattled two major decision victories in a row–each by the bare minimum of eight points. Those included a 16-8 victory by Reed Williams at 120 over Kyle Erickson and 9-1 victory by Tanner Schultz at 126 over Christian Lamon.
With two matches to go, Holmen lead Sparta 32-22. A victory would click the match for Holmen. Even a regular decision victory or major decision by Sparta would clinch the match for Holmen. Sparta needed a pin and David Hayes delivered in the third period with a pin in 4:48 over Isaac Lahr in a match that was close before Hayes turned off the lights on Lahr.
That made it 32-28 going into the final match pitting Holmen’s Bi-State runner-up in Kaylyn Jahn and Sparta’s state qualifier and 40-match winner from a year ago Brett VonRuden. It wasn’t likely that VonRuden would get a major decision or technical fall victory over Jahn and a tie would give the match to Holmen on criteria. Sparta needed a pin so that is what VonRuden went out to do.
Near the end of the second period, VonRuden shot and his head collided with Jahn and he was knocked out and Jahn was given the match via injury default. Dual Holmen. 38-28.
Full match results are below…
145 – Jaden Winchel defeats Ryan Bennett (Holmen) 8-1
152 – Hayden Krein won by technical fall over Wyatt McCutchen (Holmen) 16-0
160 – Jacob Limberg (Holmen) pinned Mathias Krein in 2:11
170 – James Gann pinned Noah Carpenter (Holmen) in 2:40
182 – Jack Westcott (Holmen) defeated Ryan Wisniewski 6-3
195 – Austin Zweifel won by major decision over Guenther Horman (Holmen) 11-2
220 – Jesse Fiers (Holmen) pinned Jack Ruedy in 1:09
285 – Gabe Hauser (Holmen) pinned Noah Benish in 1:21
106 – Rylee Rensberry (Holmen) defeated Blake Brooks 8-3
113 – Jon Bailey won by major decision over Carson Eikenberry (Holmen) 12-2
120 – Reed Williams (Holmen) won by major decision over Kyle Erickson 16-8
126 – Tanner Schultz (Holmen) won by major decision over Christian Lamon 9-1
132 – David Hayes pinned Isaac Lahr (Holmen) in 4:48
138 – Kayln Jahn (Holmen) won by injury default over Brett VonRuden in 3:59
HOLMEN 38 – SPARTA 28
Spartan kids wrestled their hearts out Thursday night. Holmen picked up important bonus point at key matches and stalled to keep Spartans away from bonus points of their own in others. If this dual was wrestled 50 times, there would probably be 50 different results and Sparta and Holmen would likely split the wins and losses down the middle. Thursday night’s result was actually a lot closer than the score indicated.
