.jpg "ragan-holmen-2012")
Holmen avenged Saturday’s loss to the Spartans by winning eight matches en route to a 28-25 victory over the visiting Spartans. There were numerous matches where the Spartans could have picked up extra points, but they were facing a tough Holmen team at home with the Vikings wrestling with a chip on their shoulder for teammate Ben Fiers who continues to recover from a car crash on Christmas Eve.
Each team picked up a pin, but Holmen’s pin was a momentum-swinger. With the score 2-1 in favor of Holmen, the Vikings’ Hunter Hauser shot on the whistle to start the second period and caught Chris Beeler’s knee in an awkward position. Beeler immediately hit the mat in obvious pain for a few minutes before waiving off help from coaches and officials and sporting a significant limp. He battled through the pain to pick up a reversal before Hauser escaped and Beeler was caught in an awkward position and stuck. It was a great effort by Beeler despite what looked like a painful knee injury.
Other matches that were different from Saturday was Derek VonRuden defeating Ryan Stalsberg 4-2. Stalsberg defeated VonRuden 1-0 at Stevens Point. Dan Niccum got payback against Paul Vantassel with a 7-4 victory after Vantassel defeated Niccum 4-2 on Saturday. Dylan Winchel pounded Wyatt Anderson 17-5 after going to overtime against Anderson on Saturday. Finally, at 120 pounds Darius Wright picked up a 6-3 victory over Brock Polhamus. Wright lost 4-3 to Polhamus in Saturday’s dual.
Those were the main differences in this dual and Saturday’s dual. Holmen was also helped by the return of James Bennett at 126 pounds. On Saturday, Holmen’s Sam Schank defeated Tristan Zurfluh 6-4. Tonight, Bennett took over 126 pounds and picked up an extra team point for the Vikings with a 9-1 major decision victory.
It was a great dual that was decided in the final match of the night when the score was 25-24 in favor of the Spartans.
132 — Derek VonRuden defeated Ryan Stalsberg (Holmen) 4-2
138 — Dan Niccum (Holmen) defeated Paul Vantassel 7-4
145 — Michael Murnane defeated Avery Hackett (Holmen) 17-11
152 — Toby Mosley major decisioned Nick Frana (Holmen) 12-2
160 — Tyler Westpfahl (Holmen) defeated Bob Ragan 8-4
170 — Duncan McKinney (Holmen) defeated Greg Skon 9-3
182 — Kyle Burkhalter pinned Jacob Wiemerslage (Holmen) 4:26
195 — Joe Inglett (Holmen) defeated Daniel Dawley 4-1
220 — Tyler Shockey (Holmen) defeated Logan Degenhardt 11-5
285 — Hunter Hauser (Holmen) pinned Chris Beeler 2:32
106 — Dylan Winchel major decisioned Wyatt Anderson (Holmen) 17-5
113 — John Roddick tech falled Louis Corcoran (Holmen) 22-7
120 — Darius Wright (Holmen) defeated Brock Polhamus 6-3
126 — James Bennett (Holmen) major decisioned Tristan Zurfluh 9-1
Congratulations to the Vikings on winning a tough dual. The Spartans won’t have to wait long to get back at Holmen as the Vikings will be wrestling in Sparta on Saturday at the Spartan Invite. The loss drops Sparta’s record to 14-1 overall and 3-1 in the conference. It was the first MVC loss for Sparta since a 25-35 loss to Tomah on February 3rd, 2009. It was quite a run for the Spartans.
The live blog worked for awhile tonight before the cell phone connection dropped and we couldn’t update results anymore. We apologize for anyone unable to follow the action after the first few matches. We’ll have photos later and a preview for Saturday’s Spartan Invite on Friday. Congrats to both teams on wrestling hard in one of the most entertaining duals in recent memory in the MVC.
Great match at Holmen. In a match like this, every single match and point has an impact on the final result. Those are great matches to watch but hard on the coaches when it is over because there are so many things that “could have been”. Great lessons for even more important matches ahead. This team can go to Team State and do well.
The following comments are from Joe Russell, head coach at George Mason and former Gopher assistant, after a disappointing weekend of wrestling. Good thoughts for any team or wrestler no matter what level.
“We still need guys to wrestle as hard as they can for all 7 minutes. If we can be more consistent in our effort and attitude, we will have better results. I felt we lost several bouts because guys would let down physically or mentally. I have said it before and will say many more times – mini breaks cause defeat in college wrestling. We had guys lose their fight; lose their hustle for brief time periods. As a result, we lost matches. A little more hustle, a little more fight, we win matches and thus finish 3-0 in duals.
Wrestling is a tough sport physically and mentally. Often time people look only to the raw physical skills, technique, power, endurance. I love watching the mental part of the sport – the battle of wills. Who will back down first? Who will concede out of fear of failure, fear of fatigue? Who is willing to take a risk? What is the strategy used to win a situation? The sport can resemble a chess match at times. The sport can also look like an old fashioned gladiator battle. The sport is fascinating.”
Team Montgomery undoubtedly knows MVC wrestling much better than yours truly, but from paying attention more from a wider conference perspective, I thought that was the best dual in the MVC since 2006 when Holmen and Tomah tied 29-29, with Tomah winning the dual on the fourth criteria. That being said, the now non-existent MVC/Coulee combined conference tourney also was a factor in the determination of the team champion then, and of course isn’t now, so that definitely added a tinge of drama Thursday night that wasn’t there in ’06.
Thanks Craig. It was a great dual and from what I’ve heard, wrestlers on each side paid for it with some injuries. I think Sparta will be happy to go some places and not see Holmen now. Wrestling them three times in one week was a little much. Should be interesting to see how the Spartans do Saturday in Kasson, Minn. against some of Minnesota’s top competition.