Here are 127 photos from yesterday’s action in Sparta. Again, congrats to the Spartans on their team title.
2012 Spartan Invite – Images by Derek Montgomery
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Spartan Invite
Tom Tourdot racked up three pins en route to a 4-0 day and the 215-pound title to lead the Spartans to a fifth place team finish at the Sparta Invitational. MVC rival Holmen won the invite with 183 points followed by Weston/Ithaca with 166, Neillsville with 156, Marshfield with 155.5 and Sparta at 152.5.
There were plenty of opportunities for the Spartans to move up in the standings as they dropped 10 matches by three or fewer points. Winning just a few of those matches would have propelled the Spartans into third place and possibly higher. On the day, the Spartans went 3-5 against Holmen, 3-2 against Weston/Ithaca, 4-2 against Neillsville and 2-2 against Marshfield.
Other top finishers for the Spartans included Dylan Winchel (3rd), Derek VonRuden (3rd), Nick Winchel (3rd), Toby Mosley (3rd), Morgan Leis (2nd) and Chris Beeler (4th). Holmen’s 103-pounder, Darius Wright, was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Wrestler after going 4-0 on the day with three pins and taking down the previously undefeated Phillip Opelt of Neillsville 2-1 in the finals. Opelt was 26-0 on the year heading into the finals. Wright is now 30-4.
For full match-by-match results for each Spartan, click here. Summarized results for each Spartan are below…
103 – Dylan Winchel, 3rd Place, 3-1 with a pin
112 – Tristan Zurfluh, Did Not Place, 2-2 with a pin and major decision
119 – Bryce Nowaczyk, 6th Place, 3-2 with a pin
125 – Derek VonRuden, 3rd Place, 3-1 with a pin
130 – Nick Winchel, 3rd Place, 3-1 with two pins
135 – Paul Vantassel, Did Not Place, 2-2 with a pin
140 – Michael Murnane, 6th Place, 3-2 with a major decision
145 – Toby Mosley, 3rd Place, 3-1 with a tech fall and major decision
152 – Morgan Leis, 2nd Place, 3-1 with a major decision
160 – Robert Ragan, Did Not Place, 0-2
171 – Xavier Lopez, Did Not Place, 0-2
189 – Kyle Burkhalter, Did Not Place, 1-2 with a pin
215 – Tom Tourdot, 1st Place, 4-0 with three pins
285 – Chris Beeler, 4th Place, 2-2 with a pin
The Spartans are off until Thursday when they travel to La Crosse Central. The JV wrestles at 6:15pm while the varsity takes the mat at 7:30pm.
There will be photos from today’s invite posted here in the coming days. I’ll also have individual results from the Stevens Point Tournament, the Lee Griffin Invite and more coming in the next few days. Also, a time-lapse video of both the Spartan Invite and Sparta Youth Tournament will be posted here in the coming days. Check back later in the week for that!!
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Another year, another loaded Spartan Invite. This year’s edition of the Spartan Invite features five teams appearing in the latest Wisconsin Wrestling Online rankings. Those teams include Marshfield (10th D1), Holmen (Honorable Mention D1), Sparta (8th D2), Neillsville (Honorable Mention D2) and Weston/Ithaca (5th D3). Finishing in the top three will be a challenge for the Spartans, but if things go their way, they could be vying for a tournament trophy.
On the indvidual side, here are the ranked wrestlers from each school…
- Blair-Taylor: Cody Bahn – 4th at 285 in D3
- Holmen: Darius Wright – 11th at 103 in D1, James Bennett – 3rd at 119, Isaac Hackett – Honorable Mention at 160, Ben Fiers – 8th at 189
- Marshfield: Daniel Barton – Honorable Mention at 135 in D1, Torin Boernke – 4th at 140, Josh Shupe – 9th at 145, Brad Dolezal – 1st at 160
- Neillsville: Dan Schoen – 2nd at 189 in D2, Phillip Opelt – 3rd at 103, Kyle Wilson – Honorable Mention at 130, Damien Luchterland – 1st at 152
- New Lisbon: Cullen Pedersen – 6th at 125 in D3, Zach Oleson – 3rd at 130, Stuart Hogan – 3rd at 135, Trey Theisen – 4th at 140, Joe Baumgart – Honorable Mention at 160
- North Crawford/Seneca: Zach Miller – Honorable Mention at 140 in D3, Shane Torgerson – Honorable Mention at 160
- Reedsburg: Keith Craker – 14th at 189 in D1, Blake Koch – 3rd at 125
- Royall: Lucas Johnson – 10th at 130 in D3, Christian Moore – 8th at 215
- Sparta: Derek VonRuden – Honorable Mention at 125 in D2, Nick Winchel – Honorable Mention at 130, Toby Mosley – 12th at 145, Tom Tourdot – 1st at 215
- Wautoma: Zach Sirny – 2nd at 103 in D2, Bryce Bennot – Honorable Mention at 140, Dan Ostrowski – Honorable Mention at 152, Abi Colon – Honorable Mention at 152,
- Westfield-Pioneer: Dan Beane – 10th at 135 in D2
- Weston/Ithaca: Nick Laack – 9th at 119 in D3, Marcus McCauley – 8th at 125, Nate Duren – 8th at 135, Austin Clary – 11th at 140, Mitchell Ricco – Honorable Mention at 171, Clayton Jennings – 7th at 215
That’s a total of 39 ranked wrestlers. Three wrestlers, Sparta’s Tom Tourdot, Marshfield’s Brad Dolezal and Neillsville’s Damien Luchterland, enter the tournament as the top wrestlers in their weight class in their respective divisions. Two more wrestlers, Wautoma’s Zach Sirny and Marshfield’s Dan Schoen, come in ranked second. Thirteen more wrestlers are ranked in the top five at their division’s weight class.
Weston/Ithaca, who the Spartans defeated 33-29 at the beginning of the month, enter the tournament with the most ranked wrestlers of any team at six. New Lisbon is second with five ranked wrestlers while Sparta, Marshfield, Holmen and Wautoma all come into the tournament with four.
It’s going to be a good day of wrestling with some intriguing matchups and some very good teams. A discussion about the Spartan Invite was started earlier this week at Wisconsin Wrestling Online. It’s worth a quick read.
I will try to get back and do some quick updates throughout the day, but I’ll be pretty busy taking pictures and video so the updates won’t be as constant as usual. You will be able to track the tournament’s progress at Trackwrestling.com.
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As promised, here are 113 images from the Spartan Invite a few weeks back. You can click on the “Spartan Invite 2010” link below the slideshow to browse larger versions of each photo. Tomorrow we will be posting an article by Steve Kimpel onto the Spartanwrestling.com Alumni page, but you can check back here to find out when it’s posted. For now, enjoy the photos!
Spartan Invite 2010 – Images by Derek Montgomery
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Sparta finished 1o points back of New Lisbon and 60 behind team champion Marshfield to capture third place today at the Spartan Invite. Despite missing Toby Mosely and Morgan Leis to sickness, the Spartans were able to make a serious run at the runner-up spot, but Marshfield top to bottom was too solid for the Spartans.
Matt Tourdot led the way for Sparta going 4-0 with four pins and four minutes of mat time (it was 3:59 if you want to get technical) to improve to 35-0 on the year. Brandon Rickert at 119 pounds and Brandon Brueggen at 171 pounds also advanced to the championship matches, but each lost very close matches.
Rickert had the more entertaining match of the two Brandons as he took this year’s Bi-State champion into overtime and nearly won it with a takedown that was just off the mat. In the end he was bested by New Lisbon’s Zachary Oleson (31-4) by a score of 3-1. At 171 pounds, Brandon Brueggen ran into a wall again against Reedsburg’s Shane Rockweiler losing 4-2 in the finals. Brueggen lost to Rockweiler by a score of 3-2 during this year’s Reedsburg Dual Invite.
Other top finishers for Sparta included Bryce Nowaczyk (3rd) and Adam Wiedl (3rd). For a summary of Sparta’s individuals check that out below…
For full match-by-match results of Sparta’s wrestlers from today’s invite, click here.
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103 – Bryce Nowaczyk, 3rd Place, 3-1 with a pin
112 – Adam Wiedl, 3rd Place, 3-1 with a pin and a tech fall
119 – Brandon Rickert, 2nd Place, 3-1 with a pin
125 – Nick Winchel, 5th Place, 4-1 with two pins and two major decisions
130 – Derek VonRuden, 5th Place, 4-1 with a pin and a major decision
135 – Jesse Amundson, 5th Place, 4-1 with a major decision
140 – Logan Denasha, Did Not Place, 0-2
145 – Nick Anderson, Did Not Place, 2-2 with a pin
152 – Alex Hemmersbach, Did Not Place, 2-2 with a pin and a major decision
160 – Tom Tourdot, 6th Place, 3-2 with a pin
171 – Brandon Brueggen, 2nd Place, 3-1
189 – Jordan Stanek, 5th Place, 3-1 with a major decision
215 – Matt Tourdot, 1st Place, 4-0 with four pins
285 – Steve Stevenson, 4th Place, 2-2 with a pin
TEAM SCORES: Marshfield 235.5, New Lisbon 185.5, Sparta 175.5, Reedsburg 154, Neillsville 135, Holmen 131, Waukon 111.5, Weston/Ithaca 80, Blair-Taylor 78, Royall 66.5, Cedarburg 49.5, North Crawford/Seneca 35, Wautoma 30.5, Burlington Catholic Central 5, North Division 0
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Overall, Sparta went 39-18 on the day with 14 pins. Tourdot’s four pins give him 28 on the season, which puts him one back of the team record of 29 pins set by Jarrod Ebert during the 1995-96 season.
Sparta will now prepare for La Crosse Central on Thursday and the Rochester Tournament on Saturday, which will feature wrestling by both the varsity and JV at the same tournament. After that, it’s the showdown in Tomah. Be sure to check back here during the next week for a few special features regarding the 10th anniversary of the Sparta-Tomah dual that ended in controversy, a breakdown of the likely showdowns and scenarios for the upcoming dual and more as we prepare for another high stakes match with Tomah.
And be sure to check back here for photos from today’s invite and the dual with Onalaska. I should have those up here on Sunday or Monday.
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