Kreins and Von Ruden lead Spartans to 2nd at Sparta Invite

Brett Von Ruden was one of three Spartans to finish 2nd on Saturday.

Brett Von Ruden, Hayden Krein and Mathias Krein all finished second Saturday to lead Sparta to a second place finish in their own invitational.  Conference rival and top-ranked Holmen ran away with the team title scoring 269 points to Sparta’s 176.5.  The Spartans did finish 17.5 points ahead of 6th-ranked Marshfield despite wrestling without Jon Bailey at 120.

Wrestling at 145 pounds for the first time this season, Brett Von Ruden won his first match by pin in 4:33 and his semfinal match by 11-3 major decision before meeting Mauston’s Teagen Miller in the finals.  The match between the top-ranked division two wrestler at 145 pounds and the fourth-ranked wrestler at 152 pounds in division one went in favor of Miller as he won the championship match 3-1.

At 160 pounds, Hayden Krein won his quarterfinal match in 28 seconds before meeting Holmen’s Reed Williams in the semifinals.  In a matchup of ranked wrestlers it was Krein who emerged victorious with a 4-2 victory.  Hayden is currently ranked 4th in D1 at 160 while Williams is an honorable mention at the same weight.  That brought Krein and Iowa-Grant/Highland’s Max Maylor together for the second time this season.  Once again, it was Maylor who ended up on the winning side of a match against a Spartan–this time with a 6-1 victory.  During the 2016-17 season, Maylor defeated Brett Von Ruden three times and this year, Maylor has defeated Krein twice.

One weight up at 170 pounds, Mathias Krein breezed through his first two matches with a technical fall victory in just 2:35 over DeForest’s Alex Peart before winning 6-1 against Boscobel’s Chase Beinborn in the semifinals.  That brought together two ranked wrestlers for the 170-pound championship match in Mathias Krein (HM at 170 in D1) and Holmen’s Kalyn Jahn (2nd at 170 in D1).  Last year’s 5th-place state placewinner Kalyn Jahn downed Mathias in the finals via 11-0 major decision.

Vince Polhamus, Garet Pfaff and Noah Benish all placed third for the Spartans.  In the process, Benish defeated the first ranked wrestler of his career by pinning Princeton’s Ryan Bollinger in 4:48.  Bollinger is an honorable mention in D3.  Kyle Erickson and David Hayes placed ffith, Sam Matias-Escalante and Kelten Pfaff placed sixth and Luis Cruz-Cane, Esteban Rodriguez, Corbin Hauser and Madden Connelly all placed seventh to round out the placewinners for Sparta.  At 132 pounds, Thomas Treu did not place, but he wrestled two tough wrestlers well.  He lost 5-3 to Princeton’s Connor Richter (27-8 and ranked 8th in D3) and lost 3-0 to Holmen’s Trevor Plomedahl (previously ranked as high as 11th in D1 at 132 pounds).

Holmen preview

Saturday’s tournament was the second time this season the Spartans entered a tournament where Holmen was also wrestling.  Wrestlers from division one’s top-ranked team matched up with the Spartans seven times with the Vikings winning six of those seven matches.  Holmen victories at 132 and 152 were by three and two-point margins.  It will be an extremely tough dual against Holmen and might represent the first time since Sparta’s South Central Conference days that the Spartans will wrestle a top-ranked team in a dual.

Check out all the results below.

Summarized results…

106  –  Luis Cruz-Cane, 7th Place, 0-2
113  –  Vince Polhamus, 3rd Place, 2-1 with a pin and major decision
120  –  Sam Matias-Escalante, 6th Place, 0-2
126  –  Esteban Rodriguez, 7th Place, 1-2
132  –  Thomas Treu, Did Not Place, 0-2
138  –  Kyle Erickson, 5th Place, 4-1 with two pins and a major decision
145  –  Brett Von Ruden, 2nd Place, 2-1 with a pin and major decision
152  –  David Hayes, 5th Place, 4-1 with three pins
152  –  Corbin Hauser, 7th Place, 2-2 with a pin
160  –  Hayden Krein, 2nd Place, 3-1 with a pin
170  –  Mathias Krein, 2nd Place, 2-1 with a technical fall
182  –  Kelten Pfaff, 6th Place, 1-2 with a pin
195  –  Madden Conelly, 7th Place, 2-2 with two pins
220  –  Garet Pfaff, 3rd Place, 2-1 with two pins
285  –  Noah Benish, 3rd Place, 2-1 with a pin

Significant wins on the day included…

• Brett Von Ruden’s 11-3 major decision victory over Princeton’s Guenther Hebbe (ranked 4th in D3 at 145)
• Hayden Krein’s 4-2 victory over Holmen’s Reed Williams (HM at 160 in D1)
• Mathias Krein’s 6-1 victory over Boscobel’s Chase Beinborn (HM at 170 in D3)
• Noah Benish’s pin in 4:48 against Princeton’s Ryan Bollinger (HM at 285 in D3)

Team scores…

1. Holmen 269
2. Sparta 176.5
3. Marshfield 159
4. Neillsville/Greenwood/Loyal 129
5. Iowa-Grant/Highland 110
6. Mauston 102
7. Reedsburg 101
8. West Salem 88
9. DeForest 84.5
10. Eau Claire North 71.5
11. Princeton 65.5
12. Blair-Taylor 62.5
13. Adams-Friendship 52
14. Boscobel 48.5
15. Black River Falls 30.5
16. Westfield 5

Full results…