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.
Some real close matches. It’s not over, but I’m surprised at how well Holmen is wrestling and how poorly Marshfield is wrestling. This should drop Marshfield out of the top D1 rankings and maybe boost Holmen. It’s good to see Sparta is wrestling Neilsville and Weston Ithica close.