9:18 am — Marshfield’s Jordan Koranda is moving down to 189 for today’s Spartan Invite setting an absolutely ridiculous 189 pound bracket. If Sparta’s Jordan Stanek, the 8th ranked wrestler in division two, wants to bring home a championship today, he’ll have to go through Koranda as well as the top ranked wrestler in division three in New Lisbon’s Anthony Edgren. On the whole, that brings four ranked wrestlers to the 189 pound bracket. It also makes the road to a championship just a little bit easier for Sparta’s Matt Tourdot at 215 pounds. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to post many live updates today like in the past because I’m going to be running around with a madman taking pictures, but you can get updates and follow the action on Trackwrestling.com.
Friday, January 22nd — Every weight class at today’s Spartan Invite with the exception of 285 has at least one ranked wrestler. From 103 to 215 pounds, the brackets are filled with 30 names that appear among the state’s best at their respective weight class according to Wisconsin Wrestling Online. That includes four guys with No. 1 rankings and three guys with No. 2 rankings. On the team side, Marshfield enters the tournament ranked 11th in Division One, New Lisbon is ranked fourth in Division Three and Sparta comes in at 8th in Division Two. New Lisbon brings five ranked wrestlers to the tournament, Marshfield four, Reedsburg four, Sparta three, Holmen two, North Crawford/Seneca two, Royall two, Weston two and Blair-Taylor and Cedarbug with one apiece. It’s a loaded tournament and there should be some exciting matches today.
The 125 and 145 pound brackets will each see four ranked wrestlers step on the mat. At 215 pounds, Sparta’s Matt Tourdot may have to deal with the 2nd ranked wrestler in Division One in Marshfield’s Jordan Koranda. In last year’s Spartan Invite, Tourdot crushed Koranda 21-8. At 189 pounds, Sparta’s Jordan Stanek could face off with the guy who is ranked one spot ahead of him in Neillsville’s Dan Schoen.
The top ranked guys stepping onto the mat today include Marshfield’s Brad Dolezal. This kid lost in overtime in the state finals last year at 140 pounds and finished the year with a 42-5 record. At 140 pounds, we have Damien Luchterhand of Neillsville. Luchterhand qualified for state last year, but did not place going 1-2 and finishing the year with a 33-17 record. At 189 pounds, New Lisbon’s Anthony Edgren is the top ranked wrestler in Division Three. Edgren qualified for the state finals last year at the same weight class losing 2-0 to Jack Duerst of Boyceville who finished his season 43-0. Edgren finished the year with a 38-10 record. Then at 215 pounds, we have our very own Matt Tourdot. Tourdot finished third in Division One last year at 189 pounds finishing the year with a 42-3 record. He lost to the eventual state champion, Jackson Hein of Wausau West, in the state semifinals by the razor thin margin of 6-5.
One other notable is Marshfield’s Torin Boernke who is ranked 9th at 140 pounds this year in Division One, but is the defending state champion at 112 pounds finishing last year’s season with a 44-1 record. His match in the final wasn’t a close one either as he cruised to a 10-3 victory to capture a state title.
You will be able to follow the action as it unfolds on Trackwrestling.com. Check back here tomorrow night for a complete update on how the tournament unfolded and how Sparta fared against some tough competition. Also, check back early next week for photos from the Onalaska dual and the Spartan Invite as well as a couple videos from today’s tournament.
