It’s a record! Spartans send six to state

Your neck might get sore after looking from mat to mat if you travel to the Kohl Center later this week for the state wrestling tournament. That’s because Sparta is sending a team record six wrestlers to the state tournament.  Dylan Winchel, John Roddick, Brock Polhamus, Derek VonRuden, Toby Mosley and Kyle Burkhalter will be representing Sparta at this year’s state tournament.

There were a ton of great story lines throughout the day.  Derek VonRuden found out he was going to wrestle on Friday and took full advantage of that opportunity by taking down the eighth and ninth ranked wrestlers in his weight class en route a second place finish at 132 pounds and his second state tournament berth.

Dylan Winchel overcame two convincing losses to Viroqua’s JJ McClelland and defeated him 8-4 in the finals to run his season record to 45-4 and earn his first trip to the state tournament.  Then comes the tale of Sparta’s two super freshman.  John Roddick and Brock Polhamus both finished third to earn the first state tournament berths by a Spartan freshman since Josh Isensee in 1995.  Roddick earned his way to state by getting into the finals before losing a close championship match to Cuba City/Southwestern’s JJ Donar and then losing his second place match 8-1 to Lodi’s John Joutras.  Brock Polhamus lost his opening match of the tournament and had to win two consecutive matches to qualify.

152 pounds saw Toby Mosley bring home a sectional title in convincing fashion. Two pins paved the way to the championship match where Mosley picked up a 4-0 shutout over the seventh ranked wrestler in D2 in Cuba City/Southwestern’s Scott Digman.  Finally, at 182 pounds, Kyle Burkhalter is making his second trip in a row to Madison after finishing second today.  Burkhalter wrestled his way into the finals before falling to Belmont/Platteville’s Dusty Jentz 23-7 in the finals. Kyle earned his trip to state in the match before after he avenged a Tuesday night loss to Evansville/Albany’s Alex Yoerger by defeating him 7-5 in the semifinals.  Burkhalter won his second place match by injury default over Lodi’s Jesse Ziegler.

Finishing fourth on the day and just short of the state tournament was Tristan Zurfluh who lost 2-0 in overtime to Monroe’s Aaron Hesgard in the match that decided who was going to the state tournament.  Check out the results below to see how everyone did on the day…

106  —  Dylan Winchel, 1st Place, 3-0 with a pin
113  —  John Roddick, 3rd Place, 2-2 with a pin
120  —  Brock Polhamus, 3rd Place, 2-1 with a pin
126  —  Tristan Zurfluh, 4th place, 2-2
132  —  Derek VonRuden, 2nd Place, 3-1 with a pin and major decision
145  —  Michael Murnane, Did Not Place, 1-2 with a major decision
152  —  Toby Mosley, 1st Place, 3-0 with two pins
160  —  Bob Ragan, Did Not Place, 0-2
182  —  Kyle Burkhalter, 2nd Place, 3-1 with a pin
195  —  Dan Dawley, Did Not Place, 0-1
285  —  Chris Beeler, Did Not Place, 0-1

Sparta is off until Thursday when they open up state tournament action at the Kohl Center in Madison.  We’ll have a state tournament preview up by Monday afternoon.  Congrats to the Spartans on another fine day!