Harrisonville

Winchel, VonRuden, Leis & Tourdot lead Spartans to second place finish at Harrisonville

by Derek on December 18, 2010

Sparta wrestled tough over two days in Missouri. Here is Morgan Leis after his 3rd place finish.

Derek VonRuden, Nick Winchel, Morgan Leis and Tom Tourdot all brought home third place medals to lead the Spartans to a second-place team finish in the 36-team Harrisonville Christmas Invitational.  VonRuden and Winchel went 5-1 over two days (excluding byes) while Leis went 6-2 and Tourdot 6-1 to bring home their bronze medals.

Other top finishers for the Spartans included Dylan Winchel (6th at 103), Michael Murnane (4th at 140) and Toby Mosley (6th at 145).  Ten Spartans finished in the top 10 of the 36-team tournament while every Spartan placed in the top 15.  It was a great tournament with some memorable moments including…

  • Derek VonRuden’s victory over Nick Koon of Carl Junction (20-6) by a score of 3-2 in the second round
  • Derek VonRuden’s victory over Jake Bradbury of Deer Creek (15-6) by a score of 5-2 in the 3rd place match
  • Nick Winchel defeating previously unbeaten Antoine Jones of KC Center by a score of 10-7.  Jones was sixth at state the previous year in Missouri
  • Nick Winchel’s pin in 3:54 over Brandon Johnson of Holden (16-4)
  • Nick Winchel’s victory by 10-4 decision over Trever Glynn of Holden (16-3)
  • Michael Murnane’s 15-7 major decision victory over Matthew Woodcock of St. Clair (17-2)
  • Toby Mosley’s 11-9 overtime victory over Christian Buchanan of St. Charles West (18-2)
  • Morgan Leis’ one point loss to Missouri state runner-up Trent Landes of Carl Junction (23-2)
  • Morgan Leis’ 3-1 victory in the third place bout over Casey Bartee of St. Charles West (16-4)

These were just a few of Sparta’s better moments in a tournament filled with many of them.  To see how each Spartan’s tournament went, check out the records below.  At the end of the stat line in parentheses is each Spartan’s record on the year so far.

103  –  Dylan Winchel, 6th Place, 4-3 with two pins (10-4)
112  –   Tristan Zurfluh, 7th Place, 4-3 with three pins (9-5)
119  –  Bryce Nowaczyk, 10th Place, 3-4 with a pin (7-6)
125  –  Derek VonRuden, 3rd Place, 5-1 with two pins and a major decision (9-4)
130  –  Nick Winchel, 3rd Place, 5-1 with two pins (11-3)
135  –  Paul VanTassel, 7th Place, 4-3 with two pins and a major decision (11-3)
140  –  Michael Murnane, 4th Place, 5-3 with two pins and a major decision (11-3)
145  –  Toby Mosley, 6th Place, 4-3 with two pins (11-3)
152  –  Morgan Leis, 3rd Place, 6-2 with two pins (8-2)
160  –  Alex Hemmersbach, 11th Place, 4-3 (7-7)
171  –  Xavier Lopez, 14th Place, 4-4 with two pins (8-6)
189  –  Clinton LaBeause, 15th Place, 2-5 with a pin (4-9)
215  –  Tom Tourdot, 3rd Place, 6-1 with three pins (13-1)
285  –  Chris Beeler, 12th Place, 3-4 with two pins (10-4)

Sparta finished the tournament in second place with 752 points, which was two points better than St. Charles West who finished with 750 points.  Deer Creek ran away with the team title with 853 points.  The second place finish was an improvement for the Spartans over last year’s third place finish and 727 points.

If you would like to see how every Spartan did in every single match, then click here.

The Spartans are off until Thursday when they travel to Madison for the Badger State Tournament hosted by Stoughton.  More on that to come.  Congrats Spartans on a great tournament and have a safe trip home!!

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Harrisonville day two updates…

by Derek on December 18, 2010

5:14 pm —  Things are starting to take shape in Harrisonville for the Spartans.  A lot of wrestling has gone on in the past few hours.  Dylan Winchel advanced to the consolation finals with a 9-5 victory while Tristan Zurfluh lost in the consolation semifinals by a score of 5-0.

At 119, Bryce Nowaczyk won his consolation semifinal by pin in 2:24 while Derek VonRuden lost his first match of the tournament in the semfinals and is guaranteed at least 4th place.  At 130 pounds, Derek VonRuden also lost in the seminfals after being caught right off the bat and stuck in 16 seconds.

At 135 pounds, Paul VanTassel dropped his consolation semifinal match 7-3 while at 140, Michael Murnane fell in the semifinals 9-1.  A weight class higher at 145 pounds, Toby Mosley was shutout against 17-0 Michael Rodgers of St. Clair.  At 152 pounds, Morgan Leis fell to another undefeated wrestler by a score of 11-3.  At 160 pounds, Alex Hemmersbach’s day is done after he won his 11th place bout by forfeit.

At 171 pounds, Xavier Lopez rebounded from three consecutive losses to win his consolation semifinal 8-5.  One weight class higher, Clinton Labeause finished his day taking 15th place with a victory by forfeit.  At 215 pounds, Tom Tourdot lost his first match of the tournament dropping a 7-2 decision to the 17-0 Haylon Jacobs of Mexico.  Finally, at 285 pounds, Chris Beeler won his consolation quarterfinal by pin in 1:28.

Teamwise, the Spartans are sitting in 2nd place with 715 points, 106 points back of Deer Creek who now have 821 points.  In third place and only 16 points back of the Spartans is St. Charles West and in 4th place, 54 points back of the Spartans, is Kirksville.  Sparta has a great chance to improve upon last year’s third place showing and they might do it without an individual champion.

This will be the last update before the final update covering how each wrestler did.  Check back here in a few hours to get each wrestler’s record on the weekend, Sparta’s team score and how each Spartan did in every single match of the tournament.

3:00 pm —  Through six rounds, the Spartans continue to put up impressive numbers on a team and individual basis.  On the team side of things, Sparta sits in second place with 634 points while Deer Creek continues to lead the tournament with 699 points.  In third place, 10 points back of the Spartans, is St. Charles West.

Individually, the Spartans continue to see success.  In the quarterfinals, Dylan Winchel and Tristan Zurfluh were pinned in the first period of their matches.  At 119, Bryce Nowaczyk won his consolation quarterfinal by decision.

Derek VonRuden continued his undefeated tournament ways by improving to 4-0 over two days with a major decision victory while Nick Winchel did the same with a victory by decision in his quarterfinal match.  At 135 pounds, Paul VanTassel dropped a match by decision and at 152 pounds, Morgan Leis defeated Dakota Bush of St. Clair, who came into his match against Leis with a record of 16-0.

At 160 pounds in the consolation quarterfinal, Alex Hemmersbach picked up a 7-1 victory while his practice partner, Xavier Lopez fell in the second period by pin to fall to 3-3 over two days.  At 189 pounds, Clinton LaBeause lost his consolation quarterfinal match by decision and at 285, Chris Beeler fell to his opponent by pin in the third period.

Tom Tourdot has yet to wrestle this round.

Read More!!!

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Harrisonville day one updates…

by Derek on December 17, 2010

12:05am —  Sparta wrapped up action on the first day at the Harrisonville Christmas Invitational with nine wrestlers without a loss.  Those wrestlers included Tristan Zurfluh (2-0), Derek VonRuden (3-0), Nick Winchel (2-0), Paul VanTassel (2-0), Michael Murnane (3-0), Toby Mosley (2-0), Morgan Leis (3-0), Xavier Lopez (2-0) and Tom Tourdot (2-0).  Many of these guys had numerous byes, but they have not been included in their records.

Records for other Spartans include Dylan Winchel (1-1), Bryce Nowaczyk (1-2), Alex Hemmersbach (1-2), Clinton LaBeause (0-2) and Chris Beeler (2-1).

Some of the more impressive victories from day one include Derek VonRuden’s 3-2 victory over a 17-5 wrestler and Nick Winchel’s pins over wrestlers that were 18-2 and 17-0.  While only wrestling twice on the first day, Winchel has really made his matches count against some of the top competition in his bracket.

Sparta remains near the top of the team standings in third place with 127 points.  Just ahead of the Spartans with 129.5 points is St. Charles West followed by Deer Creek with 130 points in first place.  Those margins mean nothing in a tournament where most of the matches have yet to be wrestled and one where Sparta scored over 700 team points last year to take third place.  In other words, there is a lot yet to come.

8:48pm —  Not a ton has happened in the last hour, but a few matches have taken place.  Dylan Winchel lost his second match of the night to fall to 1-1 on the day while Michael Murnane (2-0), Toby Mosley (2-0) and Morgan Leis (3-0) continued their winning ways.  Murnane won 10-6, Mosley won by pin in 55 seconds and Leis won by pin in 1:11.

On the team side, Sparta has fallen behind St. Charles West by seven points.  Sparta has 107 points while St. Charles West now has 114 points.  I think this might be partly because many Spartan wrestlers have yet to wrestle in this round.

I think this will be the final update tonight as I’m heading out, but when I get back I’ll do a final update on how the Spartans fared during the first day in Harrisonville.

7:48pm —  All of Sparta’s wrestlers have seen action on the mat this evening and most continue to do very well.  Dylan Winchel (1-0), Tristan Zurfluh (1-0), Derek VonRuden (2-0), Nick Winchel (1-0), Paul Vantassel (1-0), Michael Murnane (1-0), Toby Mosley (1-0), Morgan Leis (2-0), Xavier Lopez (2-0), Tom Tourdot (2-0) and Chris Beeler (1-0) are all undefeated so far tonight.  Some of these guys received numerous byes, but those have not been included in the records.

Derek VonRuden picked up a 3-2 win over Nick Koon of Carl Junction who fell to 17-5 after the loss.  Nowaczyk lost his second round match by tech fall while Alex Hemmersbach rebounded from a first round loss to win his second match by decision.  At 189, Clinton LaBeause has lost his first two matches of the night.

On the team side, Sparta holds a 8.5 point lead over St. Charles West for first place overall.  It’s still very early in the tournament, but the early team results have to be pleasing for Spartan fans and the coaches.  A number of ranked teams trail the Spartans in this tournament.  Of the Missouri ranked teams trailing are Richmond (ranked 4th in Class 1, 31 points back), Kirksville (ranked 4th in Class 2, 26 points back), Mexico (ranked 10th in Class 2, 31 points back) and St. Charles West (ranked 9th in Class 3, 8.5 points back)  Those are the Missouri teams that are ranked.  It’s a good beginning for the Spartans.

5:30pm —  Some actual wrestling has taken place in Missouri.  Tristan Zurfluh, Bryce Nowaczyk and Morgan Leis all won their initial matches.  Tristan and Morgan won by pin while Bryce won his match by decision.  More updates to come…

4:55pm —  It’s been all byes so far for the Spartans through an hour of wrestling at the Harrisonville Christmas Invitational down in Missouri.  Expect some actual wrestling to start here soon for the Spartans.

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Get your Harrisonville updates here and here and there…

by Derek on December 17, 2010

For Sparta wrestling fans not making the trip to Harrisonville, MO for this year’s holiday wrestling tournament, there are a number of ways you can follow the action. Here they are…

  • Follow the action here.  We’ll be posting updates as the day goes on.
  • Follow the results on Trackwrestling.com
  • Radio station KDKD in West Central Missouri will be broadcasting live from the tournament.  Check out their website here to listen in on the action.

In any event, you should be able to get pretty up-to-date results from the Spartans time in Harrisonville.  There will be a A LOT of wrestling.  Each wrestler is guaranteed 10 matches over two days.  That’s 140 matches involving Spartan wrestlers.  In other words, they’ll get more wrestling in today and tomorrow than they have the entire year.

Action will start at 4pm and updates on Spartanwrestling.com will continue throughout the day, evening and night.

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Sparta Wrestling Club November minutes & Missouri tournament information

by Derek on November 12, 2010

Hello everyone.  With practice starting on Monday, it’s time to start looking ahead.  With that in mind, if you’d like to follow the team to the two-day tournament in Harrisonville, MO on Friday, Dec. 17th and Saturday, Dec. 18th, please download and print out the form below.  Buses will leave the high school at 6a.m. on the 17th and will return after the completion of the tournament on the 18th.  The cost for the bus ride is $50 while the cost for a reserving a room at the Comfort Inn is $75 for a king-size bed and $80 for a king-size bed with full-size pull-out couch.  More details are included in the form so be sure to read it over to get all the information…

Click here to download the Harrisonville form…

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Below are the November minutes for the meeting of the Sparta Wrestling Club.  Everything from information about future meetings, fundraising and overviews on how recent events in the program are unfolded can be found below so check that out…

Club Meeting Minutes:  November 8, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. in the Sparta High School Cafeteria

Officers Present: Gary Nowaczyk -Pres., Mary Nowaczyk-Secretary/Treasurer,
Red Von Ruden-High School Rep., Jean Roddick-Middle School Rep.

Officers Absent:  Gretchen Brooks-Youth Rep., Steve Weidl-Alumni Rep., Vacant-V.P.,

Others Present: Jake Larson, Kelly Tourdot, Shawn Mosley, Mary Ellen Leis, Scott Rickert, Sonny Lamon, Chris and Jake Denton, Naomi Geier-Hoff, Dana Geier, Katie Ronke, Taylor Hoekstra, Michaela Muehlenkamp.

Proceedings:

  • Meeting called to order at 7:00 p.m. by Jake Larson.
  • Minutes from Oct 11, 2010 approved.
  • Mike Montgomery stepped aside as president due to current AD position.  Gary Nowaczyk ascend to Presidency and VP position needs to be filled.
  • Discussions:
  • Dubuque wrestling clinic held on 11-7-10 from 5-7 p.m.  21 wrestlers attended.
  • Wrestling activity club to reimburse wrestling club for cost of snack shack supplies.  Balance will be $2,012.68 after deposit.
  • School to only provide $1,000 for transportation to Missouri tournament.  Vans cost $1,500, coach bus costs about $3,000, club needs to donate, whichever means of transportation is chosen.  Decided to go with chartered bus, leaving on Friday, December 17 and returning on night of December 18.  Eliminates Thursday travel and hotel expenses as well as less time off from work for parents and fans who ride bus.  Cost to ride the bus is $50 per person.  Envelope will be left in office to collect money, deadline for money Friday, December 10.  Mary to collect money.  And get block of rooms for parents/fans.  Will spread word through email, Facebook, and Jake through the wrestlers.  About 35 available seats.  Bus to leave at 6:00 a.m., Friday, December 17 from high school.
  • Spaghetti dinner January 6 2011 from 4:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.  Will split help into two shifts, j.v. and 4 cheerleaders from 4:30-6:00, varsity and 4 cheerleaders from 6:00-7:30, and parents from 4:00-6:00 and 6:00-8:00.  Wrestlers and cheerleaders to bring desserts.  Will advertise on Facebook, email, and make a flyer for middle school and youth wrestlers.  Mont had notified newspaper in the past too.
  • Wrestling parent meeting Nov 18 at 6:00 after practice.
  • Scott Rickert preparing t-shirt sponsorship for wrestling tournament.  Table with information at every home meet to get more sponsors.  Flyer to be made available to distribute to businesses.
  • Cheerleading uniforms were stolen and need replacing, they are trying to raise money, but need more and asked for possible donation.  They will report back in two weeks to see if they still need assistance.
  • Dec 29, Sparta j.v. tournament, and Jan 22, Sparta varsity tournament.  Youth tournament either night of Dec 28 or 29.
  • Possible money raising ideas from Red and Scott Rickert – Silent Outdoors donates a bow or rifle and we have a raffle at Terry’s Hideout or The Zone.  Possible 3-D shoot fundraising day at Silent Outdoors too.
  • Activities club to donate flower/candy arrangement to Danita & Virgil Schmitz for providing hot water to snack shack for hot chocolate during football games.  Joanne Stanek to make and deliver arrangement.
  • Next meeting: Monday, December 13, 2010

Meeting adjourned at 8:10 P.M.

Future Business/Agenda: Wrestling season, Missouri bus, spaghetti dinner, t-shirts, and Silent Outdoors donation/raffle/3-d shoot.

Reminders: Only in Wrestling is this a positive comment; “PULL YOUR HEAD OUT”

Minutes submitted by Mary Nowaczyk

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December 20, 2009

Sparta finishes 3rd in Harrisonville

Sparta’s Matt Tourdot won his weight bracket and nine others Spartans finished in the top 10 of their weight bracket in the 37-team tournament Friday and Saturday in Harrisonville to boost Sparta to a 3rd place overall team finish with 727 points.  The Spartans were 183.5 points back of champion Kirksville who currently own the [...]

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December 19, 2009

Sparta aims for top three finish…

While it’s not out of the question, it will be a very tough task for the Spartans to win the Harrisonville Christmas tournament.  With 595.5 points, the Spartas currently occupy third place.  That score puts them 150 points back of leader Kirksville (749.5) and 104 points back of second place Seneca (699.5).  However, they hold [...]

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December 19, 2009

Sparta off to strong start in Missouri

The Sparta Spartan wrestling team went 33-9 during the first day of action in Missouri. The record includes wins by byes, but taking those away the Spartans still went 24-9.  A number of wrestlers are off to 3-0 starts including Adam Wiedl, Toby Mosley, Derek VonRuden, Tom Tourdot, Jordan Stanek and Matt Tourdot.  Nick Winchel, [...]

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