La Crosse Central

Central forfeits eight, Sparta cruises to 75-3 victory

by Derek on January 27, 2012

Sparta used eight forfeits to cruise to a 75-3 victory over La Crosse Central Thursday night. The dual was a far cry from Central teams a decade ago that won back-to-back MVC titles. Now, they can’t even put a full team on the mat.  The one bright spot for Central was Ben Thornton’s victory at 113 over John Roddick. Thornton is the top ranked wrestler at 106 pounds in division one and was a state runner up last year.

Results from last night’s dual are below…

120  –  Brock Polhamus pinned James Werner (La Crosse Central) 3:01
126  –  Tristan Zurfluh won by forfeit
132  –  Derek VonRuden  won by forfeit
138  –  Paul Vantassel tech falled Koy Rolff (La Crosse Central) 16-0
145  –  Michael Murnane  won by forfeit
152  –  Toby Mosley pinned Arthur Hoglund (La Crosse Central) 1:56
160  –  Bob Ragan  won by forfeit
170  –  Greg Skon  won by forfeit
182  –  Kyle Burkhalter  won by forfeit
195  –  Dan Dawley  won by forfeit
220  –  Logan Degenhardt  won by forfeit
285  –  Michael Beeler pinned Peter Medinger (La Crosse Cenral) 3:45
106  –  Justin Marx major decisioned Josh Kuhse (La Crosse Central) 9-1
113  –  Ben Thornton (La Crosse Central) defeated John Roddick 8-1
SPARTA 75 – LA CROSSE CENTRAL 3

The Spartans won’t have such an easy road Saturday when they head to the Kasson-Mantorville duals in Kasson, Minn.  Waiting for them is the top ranked Class AA (equivalent to D2 in Wisconsin) team in Minnesota as well as the 4th-ranked team. Full preview to come later.

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Spartans defeats Central to clinch share of MVC title

by Derek on January 27, 2011

Sparta improved to 5-0 in the MVC and clinched a share of the conference title by defeating Central 51-22 Thursday evening in La Crosse. It was the first time since the 1992-93 and 1993-94 seasons that the Spartans have at least clinched a share of the MVC title in back-to-back seasons. If they beat Tomah on February 10th, it will be the first time Sparta has won two consecutive titles outright.

As expected, Central forfeited six matches.  I’m not sure why they did this considering they had guys who seemed to fit into those weight classes wrestling on JV, but in any case, the forfeits were the difference in this match.  In actual matches wrestled, Central went 5-3 on the night beating the Spartans 22-15.

Here are match-by-mach results from Thursday evening’s dual…

119  –  Bryce Nowaczyk won by forfeit
125  –  Derek VonRuden won by forfeit
130  –  Nick Winchel decisioned Dylan Weigel (Central) 11-6
135  –  Cal Thornton (Central) pinned Zach Denton 1:42
140  –  Michael Keilen (Central) major decisioned Michael Murnane 10-1
145  – Toby Mosley won by forfeit
152  –  Morgan Leis won by forfeit
160  –  Addison Lucey (Central) major decisioned Xavier Lopez 11-2
171  –  Kyle Burkhalter pinned Kirk Valentine (Central) 2:58
189  –  Ben Schaitel won by forfeit
215  –  Tom Tourdot won by forfeit
285  –  Chris Beeler pinned Thor Kolkind (Central) 0:56
103  –  Ben Thornton (Central) tech falled Dylan Winchel 18-0
112  –  Blade Spindler (Central) decisioned Tristan Zurfluh 8-6

With the win, the Spartans improve to 5-0 in the MVC and 13-2 overall.  Tomorrow they travel to Rochester for the Rochester Invitational.  Last  year, Sparta won the team title in Rochester by 49.5 points over Eagan.  Matt Tourdot was named the outstanding wrestler of the tournament.

One more big dual awaits the Spartans and that is against Tomah on February 10th.  Should the Spartans beat Tomah at home, they will clinch the MVC title outright.  We’ll have more on that as the date gets closer.

Congrats Spartans on your 2010-11 MVC championship!

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Sparta vs. La Crosse Central Preview

by Derek on January 26, 2011

The Spartans will try to move to 5-0 in the MVC and clinch a share of the conference championship Thursday evening when they travel to La Crosse Central.  Central enters the dual with a 1-3 conference record having registered the following conference scores during the 2010-11 season…

  • Aquinas 49 – Central 27
  • Central 65 – Onalaska 18
  • Tomah 51 – Central 28
  • Holmen 48 – Central 23

The Raiders have some outstanding individuals, but suffer from a lack of numbers.  This past week against Holmen, Central forfeited six times, but won six of eight matches wrestled.  Against Tomah, Central forfeited four times, but split the 10 matches wrestled.

Dylan Winchel will face Central's Ben Thornton who enters the dual with a 32-0 record.

Central is led by super-freshman Ben Thornton who will enter the dual with a 32-0 record at 103 pounds.  Thornton is ranked 2nd in both the Wisconsin Wrestling Online and Crossface individual polls.

At 112 pounds, Central has Blade Spindler coming in with a 29-4 record and 12th place ranking according to Wisconsin Wrestling Online.  They take a step back at 119 pounds with Peyton Fellenz and his 3-11 record.  At 130 pounds, Central brings Dylan Weigel and his 21-7 record.  Up one weight class at 135 pounds, Cal Thornton enters the dual with a 29-3 record and 5th place ranking according to the Wisconsin Wrestling Online poll.  At 14o pounds, it doesn’t get any easier with Michael Keilen bringing his 29-4 record and 7th place ranking according to Wisconsin Wrestling Online.

At 16o pounds, Central brings another solid wrestler in Addison Lucey with a 24-7 record.  At 215 pounds, Tom Tourdot will match up against Peter Medinger and his 6-12 record.  Finally, at 285 pounds, Central brings the wrath of Thor Kolkind and his 8-11 record.

Imagine what this team could do if they could find someone, anyone decent to fill those empty weight classes.  But reality says Central is going to forfeit anywhere from four to six matches Thursday evening based on what they have showed at duals and tournaments throughout the season.

Sparta should win this dual, but when the wrestling happens, it’s not going to be easy for the Spartans.  In matches wrestled, it could very well be a draw similar to what happened against Tomah.

Action starts at 6:15 for the JV and 7:30 for the varsity.  Results will be posted here later tomorrow night.  Go Spartans!

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Video from La Crosse Central Dual

by Derek on January 29, 2010

We have a video from last night’s dual between Sparta’s Brandon Rickert and Central’s Dylan Weigel.  Check it out below to see the latest in a long line of Rickerts to step onto the mat for Sparta.

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Showdown setup, Sparta crushes Central

by Derek on January 29, 2010

For the fourth year in a row, the MVC championship will come down to the winner of the Sparta-Tomah dual. The Spartans wrestled one of their best duals of the year en route to a 59-9 victory over La Crosse Central.  This is the same Central team that Tomah squeaked by with a score of 33-30 earlier this  year.

However, that doesn’t mean anything.  Many thought Holmen would be the first team to beat Tomah in the MVC in six years, but the Timberwolves responded with a resounding 51-22 victory over the Vikings.  Holmen was missing a few of their starters during that dual and Sparta will be entering the dual with Tomah free of sickness and injury setting up what should be one of the most exciting duals in this rivalry’s recent memory.

While Sparta benefited from six forfeits, the matches that were actually wrestled were against some decent competition.  Central boasted five Bi-State medalists and a few of them were taken down to the wire.  Derek VonRuden was controlling the match with Central’s Cal Thornton and was leading 7-5 in the third period before getting caught in a granby.  Thornton was a state qualifier last year and placed sixth at Bi-State this year.  At 112 pounds, Adam Wiedl dominated Blade Spindler who brought home a 12th place medal from this year’s Bi-State.  And at 103 pounds, Sparta’s Bryce Nowaczyk hung in there with Central’s Alex Valentine–a fourth place finisher at this year’s Bi-State Classic.

See the match-by-match results below…

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135  –  Michael Keilen (LC) decisioned Nick Winchel 5-1
140  –  Jesse Amundson pinned John Sedlacek (LC) 3:21
145  –  Nick Anderson won by forfeit
152  –  Morgan Leis won by forfeit
160  –  Tom Tourdot won by forfeit
171  –  Brandon Brueggen won by forfeit
189  –  Jordan Stanek won by forfeit
215  –  Matt Tourdot won by forfeit
285  – Steve Stevenson pinned Kyle Wacker (LC) 1:55
103  –  Alex Valentine (LC) decisioned Bryce Nowaczyk 10-4
112  –  Adam Wiedl major decisioned Blade Spindler (LC) 13-4
119  –  Brandon Rickert major decisioned Dylan Weigel (LC) 11-2
125  –  Toby Mosley decisioned Troy Richert (LC) 6-3
130  –  Cal Thornton (LC) decisioned Derek VonRuden 12-7

FINAL:  Sparta 59 – La Crosse Central 9

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The win improves Sparta’s dual record to 16-0 and 5-0 in the MVC, which exceeds the start of the 2003-04 team that started 15-0 and advanced to the team state semifinals.  Sparta’s varsity and JV travel to the Rochester Tournament this Saturday before preparing for the dual against Tomah on Tuesday.

Again, we will have a live blog of Tuesday night’s dual against Tomah.  Tell your cousin in England, your relative in Florida or anyone who can’t make the dual, but will have an internet connection that they should visit Spartanwrestling.com to follow the action.

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January 28, 2010

Sparta vs. La Crosse Central Live Blog

Click below to follow tonight’s MVC dual between Sparta and La Crosse Central.  Former Spartan high school head coach and current middle school coach Mike Montgomery will put 40+ years of experience wrestling and coaching to use in bringing you updates as the action progresses. Sparta vs. La Crosse Central

Read the full article →