Rickert 3rd, Dolan 5th at State

It was a good three days for Jared Rickert and Jeff Dolan at the WIAA State Wrestling tournament.  Rickert went 5-1 over three days to capture third place while teammate Jeff Dolan went 4-2 to capture fifth place.

Rickert avenged an earlier loss in the quarterfinals to Kaukauna’s Dillon Bera to bring him his first state medal.  In the quarters Bera defeated Rickert 9-4, but fell to Rickert 9-8 in the 3rd place bout.  Below is how Rickert’s tournament went from start to finish:

Round 1  –  Rickert decisioned Collin Sharkey (Beaver Dam, 35-3) 7-5
Quarterfinal  –  Dillon Bera (Kaukauna, 46-5) decisioned Rickert 9-4
Cons. Round 1  –  Rickert decisioned James Miller (Milton, 30-14) 6-0
Cons. Round 2  –  Rickert decisioned Kris Magruder (Racine Case, 38-4) 4-3
Cons. Semis  –  Rickert decisioned Alec Schindler (Chippewa Falls, 41-9) 4-2
3rd Place Match  –  Rickert decisioned Dillon Bera (Kaukauna, 46-5) 9-8

Rickert’s 48 victories in a season is a new record for Sparta wrestling.  He was 48-2 overall on the year.

Both of Jeff Dolan’s losses came in overtime or by less than two points.  He capped off his tournament with a technical fall in the 5th place match.  Here is how Dolan’s tournament went:

Round 1  –  Dolan decisioned Russ Martiny (Whitnall, 3908) 7-5
Quarterfinal  –  Aaron Erickson (Merrill, 45-7) decisioned Dolan 9-4
Cons. Round 1  –  Dolan won by forfeit over Noah Budi (Kaukauna, 40-7)
Cons. Round 2  –  Dolan won by major decision over Trevor Kinney (Menasha, 40-9) 8-0
Cons. Semis  –  Mike Fuller (Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln, 40-7) decisioned Dolan 3-1 OT
5th Place Match  –  Dolan tech falled Ryan Dougherty (Stoughton, 40-9) 15-0

Dolan ended his season with a record of 42-7, which also ranks among the top three all-time in Spartan history.

Michael Jacobsen lost a match that was very close until he got caught and pinned by Milton’s David Miller in 3:51.  Miller then lost his wrestleback thus eliminating Jacobsen from competition.  Michael finished the year with a 31-10 record and will look to improve upon this year’s performance next year when he returns for his senior season.

In the next couple of days after I get Internet up here in Duluth I’ll put together a synopsis of the season, summary of new records and more.  The reason for the lack of updating over the past couple of days is that I recently took a position as a staff photographer way up in Duluth so I have not been able to update without any Internet.  I want to say here that I really enjoyed following the team this year and watching everyone do well and it was great to see the team have a great year.  I’ll be back some next year, but wanted to congratulate the team on an outstanding year.  In case anybody didn’t know who was updating and running the website, it’s Derek Montgomery (me) in case you were wondering.

Again, check back here in a few days for some added features and more.