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Sparta’s five state tournament qualifiers. Back row from left: Hayden Krein, Brett Von Ruden and Christian Lamon. Front row from left: Jon Bailey and Jaden Winchel
It was a great day of wrestling for the Spartans as they saw five wrestlers advance to the state individual tournament next week in Madison, Wisc. Champions Jon Bailey and Jaden Winchel and runners-up Christian Lamon, Brett Von Ruden and Hayden Krein will be representing Sparta at the Kohl Center starting on Thursday. David Hayes and Austin Zwiefel finished just short of qualifying in third place while Mathias Krein and James Gann were eliminated early after losing their first matches.
At 106 pounds, Jon Bailey wasn’t really tested in his first two matches winning by pin in 1:09 in his first match then picking up a solid 7-3 victory in the semifinals over Sauk Prairie’s Zeke Smith (41-8). In the finals, he faced Madison La Follette’s Francesco Schiro who entered the match with a 45-0 record. But Bailey would not be denied. In a match that went back and forth, but saw Bailey down 4-0 at one point, the Spartan freshman mounted a furious comeback over the final three minutes and staved off the La Follette junior in the final seconds to preserve a 7-6 victory to earn his first trip to the state tournament and handing Schiro his first loss in 46 matches this year.
Christian Lamon entered Saturday’s sectional tournament looking to do something few Spartans had done–qualify for three state tournaments. Not many Spartans have achieved this. The first to do it was Kevin Dutton. After Dutton came Troy Lietzau, then Kody Seekamp, Jared Rickert, Kyle Burkhalter, Dylan Winchel, John Roddick and Brock Polhamus. You can add Christian Lamon as the latest name in that list as Lamon narrowly lost his championship match, but qualified by rule to finish in second place on the day. His first two matches were relatively easy with a 35 second pin followed by a pin in 4:15 over Holmen’s Isaac Lahr. In the finals, Lamon narrowly lost to Middleton’s Kecin Meicher (39-3) by a 6-5 score.
One weight class up at 132 pounds, David Hayes had a really strong day of wrestling, but fell just short in the end. Hayes advanced to the finals with a 6-5 victory in his opening match against the eight-ranked wrestler in the state in Sauk Prairie’s Aaron Hankins (33-8). He followed that up with a 4-0 defeat of Reedsburg’s Logan Lewerenz (30-17). That set up a match with the top-ranked wrestler in the state and 2015 state runner-up Jaden Van Maanen from La Crosse Central. Van Maanen was too much for Hayes and won by in in 46 seconds. Hayes lost his 2nd place wrestleback to Chris Rogers of Middleton (34-7) 11-5 to finish third on the day. It’s the second year in a row that Hayes fell one place short of qualifying for state, but he was oh so close in one of the toughest weight classes in the section.
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Clockwise from top left: Von Ruden, Krein, Zwiefel, Winchel.
At 138 pounds, Brett Von Ruden was a third place finisher at regionals, which is usually a very difficult spot to qualify for the state tournament from. That meant nothing to Von Ruden who did some of his best wrestling of the season Saturday. In his opening match, he won by pin in 1:46, which set up a match with Holmen’s Kaylyn Jahn. If you remember from the Sparta-Holmen dual a little over a month ago, Von Ruden entered the match needing to get a pin against Jahn for the Spartans to win the dual. Obviously that changes how you wrestle someone. Ultimately, it did not matter as Von Ruden was knocked out cold in the match and nobody got the epic matchup of area 138-pounders. Saturday was different as the two went head-to-head with no team scores to worry about. Jahn held the upper hand for almost the entire match until the final minute when Von Ruden, down 8-7, pulled off a five point move on Jahn to come out with the 12-8 victory. That was a huge victory because his next match was against the third-ranked Drew Fjoser of Sauk Prairie. Again, Von Ruden had Fjoser on the ropes. With less than 20 seconds to go and down 8-6, Von Ruden picked up a takedown, but just couldn’t hold Fjoser down and surrendered an escape in the final seconds of the match to fall 9-8. Jahn won his wrestleback so Von Ruden won second place by rule to make it two state tournaments in two years for the sophomore.
At 145 pounds, Jaden Winchel was all business. His first match was a victory by injury default after just 19 seconds. He followed that up with a tough match against a familiar opponent in Tomah’s Casey Curran. After falling behind 2-0, Winchel scored the final five points of the match to win 5-2 and advance to the finals. Again, Winchel fell behind 2-0, but scored 10 unanswered points to win 10-2 and advance to his third state tournament in three years. Winchel joins teammate Lamon and the long list of Spartans mentioned above to qualify for the state tournament three times.
One weight class up at 152 pounds, the second-ranked Hayden Krein breezed through his first two matches with pins in 3:18 and 58 seconds to setup a showdown with top-ranked Eddie Smith of Sauk Prairie. It wasn’t Krein’s day against the stocky Smith as Krein dropped a 13-3 decision. He followed that up with a dominating 16-0 technical fall victory in 3:29 over Holmen’s Wyatt McCutchen to qualify for the state tournament for the second time in two years.
At 160 and 170 pounds, both Mathias Krein were pinned in their opening matches. Krein by Madison La Follette’s Tray Turner and Gann by Sauk Prairie’s Austin Powell. Krein finished the season with an 11-7 record while Gann finished with a 21-18 record. Both return next year.
At 195 pounds, Austin Zwiefel won his first match by major decision over Middleton’s Gavin Adler (22-9). He then faced Reedsburg’s Dalton Hahn (44-1) and fell by pin in 41 seconds. In one of the more dramatic matches of the day, Zwiefel, down 8-0, caught Baraboo’s Nicholas Pierce in a cradle and pinned him in 3:19 to setup a second place wrestleback with Sauk Prairie’s Logan Moore (36-14), but Austin’s day would end there with a 3-1 loss. Zweifel finished third and just short of qualify for state. He was 22-20 this season and also returns next year.
The five state tournament qualifiers matches a division one record for the Spartans. Last year they set a program record with eight state tournament qualifiers, but that was in division two. The Spartan record for division one qualifiers is five and was also set in 1995 and 1996. In other words, it was a great day for the Spartans.
On the team side of things, Sparta finished second with 118.5 points, which was just short of Sauk Prairie with 120 points. Holmen finished with 102 points while Tomah finished in 9th place with 39.5 points.
We will be updating Facebook, Twitter and the website here with photos, videos and updates from the Kohl Center starting on Thursday. Congrats to Sparta’s five state tournament qualifiers and to all the Spartans who competed today.
106 – Jon Bailey, 1st Place, 3-0 with a pin
126 – Christian Lamon, 2nd Place, 2-1 with two pins
132 – David Hayes, 3rd Place, 2-2
138 – Brett Von Ruden, 2nd Place, 2-1 with a pin
145 – Jaden Winchel, 1st Place, 3-0 with a major decision
152 – Hayden Krein, 2nd Place, 3-1 with two pins and a technical fall
160 – Mathias Krein, Did Not Place, 0-1
170 – James Gann, Did Not Place, 0-1
195 – Austin Zwiefel, 3rd Place, 2-2 with a pin and major decision
Full match results are below…
WIAA D1 Sect. C @ Waunakee Results for Sparta
106 – Jon Bailey (40-4) placed 1st and scored 20.00 team points.
Championship Bracket – Jon Bailey (Sparta) 40-4 won by fall over Guillermo Tellez-Giron (Madison Memorial) 12-7 (Fall 1:09)
Championship Bracket – Jon Bailey (Sparta) 40-4 won by decision over Zeke Smith (Sauk Prairie) 41-8 (Dec 7-3)
1st Place Match – Jon Bailey (Sparta) 40-4 won by decision over Francesco Schiro (Madison LaFollette) 46-1 (Dec 7-6)
126 – Christian Lamon (23-10) placed 2nd and scored 18.00 team points.
Championship Bracket – Christian Lamon (Sparta) 23-10 won by fall over Barry Beirne (Portage) 20-16 (Fall 0:35)
Championship Bracket – Christian Lamon (Sparta) 23-10 won by fall over Isaac Lahr (Holmen) 26-15 (Fall 4:15)
1st Place Match – Kevin Meicher (Middleton) 39-3 won by decision over Christian Lamon (Sparta) 23-10 (Dec 6-5)
2nd Place Match – Christian Lamon (Sparta) 23-10 won by rule over Isaac Lahr (Holmen) 26-15 (RULE)
132 – David Hayes (26-19) placed 3rd and scored 11.00 team points.
Championship Bracket – David Hayes (Sparta) 26-19 won by decision over Aaron Hankins (Sauk Prairie) 33-8 (Dec 6-5)
Championship Bracket – David Hayes (Sparta) 26-19 won by decision over Logan Lewerenz (Reedsburg) 30-17 (Dec 4-0)
1st Place Match – Jaden Van Maanen (Lax Central) 42-1 won by fall over David Hayes (Sparta) 26-19 (Fall 0:46)
2nd Place Match – Chris Rogers (Middleton) 34-7 won by decision over David Hayes (Sparta) 26-19 (Dec 11-5)
138 – Brett Von Ruden (22-5) placed 2nd and scored 16.00 team points.
Championship Bracket – Brett Von Ruden (Sparta) 22-5 won by fall over Derek Lawinger (Madison LaFollette) 26-19 (Fall 1:46)
Championship Bracket – Brett Von Ruden (Sparta) 22-5 won by decision over Kalyn Jahn (Holmen) 32-9 (Dec 12-8)
1st Place Match – Drew Fjoser (Sauk Prairie) 18-2 won by decision over Brett Von Ruden (Sparta) 22-5 (Dec 9-8)
2nd Place Match – Brett Von Ruden (Sparta) 22-5 won by rule over Kalyn Jahn (Holmen) 32-9 (RULE)
145 – Jaden Winchel (37-3) placed 1st and scored 21.00 team points.
Championship Bracket – Jaden Winchel (Sparta) 37-3 won by injury default over Connor Jones (Madison Memorial) 12-19 (Inj. 0:19)
Championship Bracket – Jaden Winchel (Sparta) 37-3 won by decision over Casey Curran (Tomah) 36-13 (Dec 5-2)
1st Place Match – Jaden Winchel (Sparta) 37-3 won by major decision over Nate Lorenz (Waunakee) 39-9 (MD 10-2)
152 – Hayden Krein (39-5) placed 2nd and scored 19.50 team points.
Championship Bracket – Hayden Krein (Sparta) 39-5 won by fall over Sam Johnson (Madison West) 26-17 (Fall 3:18)
Championship Bracket – Hayden Krein (Sparta) 39-5 won by fall over Hunter Kluender (Baraboo) 16-23 (Fall 0:58)
1st Place Match – Eddie Smith (Sauk Prairie) 43-4 won by major decision over Hayden Krein (Sparta) 39-5 (MD 13-3)
2nd Place Match – Hayden Krein (Sparta) 39-5 won by tech fall over Wyatt McCutchen (Holmen) 15-10 (TF-1.5 3:29 (16-0))
160 – Mathias Krein (11-7) place is unknown and scored 0.00 team points.
Championship Bracket – Tray Turner (Madison LaFollette) 35-7 won by fall over Mathias Krein (Sparta) 11-7 (Fall 4:53)
170 – James Gann (21-18) place is unknown and scored 0.00 team points.
Championship Bracket – Austin Powell (Sauk Prairie) 45-3 won by fall over James Gann (Sparta) 21-18 (Fall 1:32)
195 – Austin Zwiefel (22-20) placed 3rd and scored 13.00 team points.
Championship Bracket – Austin Zwiefel (Sparta) 22-20 won by major decision over Gavin Adler (Middleton) 22-9 (MD 15-5)
Championship Bracket – Dalton Hahn (Reedsburg) 44-1 won by fall over Austin Zwiefel (Sparta) 22-20 (Fall 0:41)
3rd Place Match – Austin Zwiefel (Sparta) 22-20 won by fall over Nicholas Pierce (Baraboo) 31-14 (Fall 3:19)
2nd Place Match – Logan Moore (Sauk Prairie) 36-14 won by decision over Austin Zwiefel (Sparta) 22-20 (Dec 3-1)
