5:27pm — Sparta’s Morgan Leis, Tom Tourdot and Derek VonRuden saw their chances at advancing to the state tournament end this afternoon, but the Spartans still have Jordan Stanek and Matt Tourdot wrestling for individual titles. VonRuden fell to Dodgeville’s Jasper Meeker (26-15) by a close score of 9-7 in the consolation semifinals. Tom Tourdot fell 11-1 to Lodi’s Tony Zeman (44-2) and Brandon Brueggen lost a 7-4 decision to River Valley’s Tyler Ryan (33-9). Congrats to those three on putting together a great year.
Sparta will send four wrestlers to this year’s state tournament in Adam Wiedl, Brandon Rickert, Jordan Stanek and Matt Tourdot. Not all of the places are finalized yet, but we do know who will be wrestling at the Kohl Center next week. Check back in awhile for a full update on today’s wrestling.
4:10 pm — Brandon Rickert loses in finals 4-3 to Bob Donar (34-3) from Cuba City/Southwestern. Brandon will not have to wrestleback and will advance to State as a 2nd place finisher.
At 112 Adam Wiedl lost in the finals 15-0 to Hunter Weber from Marshall. Weber is 48-1 this year after going 55-3 last year as a freshman and finishing 2nd in D3 at the State Tournament. Adam will wrestle Daniel Bahn from Clinton for 2nd. Bahn is currently 43-2 and was a 5th place finisher at 112 last year in D2 at the State Tournament.
3:30 pm — The finals and 3rd place matches are underway. Look for important 3rd place matches at 152 and 171 for the Spartans. Wins are needed here to guarantee a trip to State.
2:14 pm — The matchup that was supposed to be epic was far from it. Matt Tourdot pinned Lodi’s Cody Endres in 2:30. Tourdot dominated Endres in the first period then made quick work of him in the second period to send the Spartan contingent at Richland Center wild. The win also gets Tourdot into the state tournament and brings Sparta’s total to four so far.
At 152 pounds, Sparta’s Tom Tourdot did get a wrestleback. The tally for Sparta right now is four state qualifiers and five guys still in the hunt for a trip to the state tournament. The guys wrestling back need to win their next two matches to advance to the state tournament.
2:01 pm — Sparta can add another state qualifier in Jordan Stanek. Stanek defeated Mike Nolden of Belleville/Monticello/New Glarus (30-14) by a major decision score of 13-5. Brandon Brueggen lost his 171 pound semifinal and will now wrestleback for 2nd. We are now awaiting the results of the Tourdot-Endres match and once we get the results, we’ll post them here.
1:37 pm — Sparta’s Adam Wiedl and Brandon Rickert both won their semifinal matches and in doing so qualified for the state tournament. Wiedl dominated Austyn Alt of River Vallery (38-7) by a score of 9-2 to advance to the finals. Rickert shut out Kevin Klopfenstein of Monroe (38-10) 3-0 to advance. If both Wiedl and Rickert lose, they will wrestleback for 2nd. If they lose that match, they will take third and there is no wrestleback for third place. Congrats to Wiedl and Rickert!
At 103 pounds, Bryce Nowaczyk was eliminated from the tournament after Nick Lechnir was defeated in the semifinals. Toby Mosley and Morgan Leis did make it into the wrestleback round while Derek VonRuden lost his semifnal and will now wrestleback for 2nd place. Keep checking back here for updates on how Sparta is doing!
12:50pm — I made a mistake earlier when talking about how the wrestlebacks work. The top three placewinners at each weight class advance to the state tournament. However, if you lose your first match, you must hope for the guy who beat you to win his next match. If that happens, then you end up in the wrestlebacks, but if they lose then you are out of the tournament. Sorry for any confusion.
12:39pm — Sparta saw six wrestlers win their first round matches this morning at Richland Center. Adam Wiedl, Brandon Rickert, Derek VonRuden, Brandon Brueggen, Jordan Stanek and Matt Tourdot all won their initial matches. Brueggen picked up a 5-3 victory while Stanek and Tourdot both picked up pins.
The second round will be the critical round of the day for Sparta. Winning the semifinal match greatly increases the odds of going to state while those that lost in the first round need to win their wrestleback to stay in the tournament.
One of the top matchups at any sectional in the state today will feature Matt Tourdot against Lodi’s Cody Endres. The two split matches over the summer and Endres was a state runner-up last year losing in overtime. They did not meet Tuesday night in the team sectional. Tourdot is currently ranked 1st in division two according to Wisconsin Wrestling Online–a spot that Endres owned at the start of the season before an injury kept him out a large part of the year. Endres is currently ranked third in division two.
And in the meaningless team score category, Sparta is currently tied with Marshall for first place with 20 points. Keep checking back here for updates as the day continues.
10:54am — Action is underway in Richland Center and five Spartans have already finished their matches. At 103 pounds, Bryce Nowaczyk ran into a wall against Nick Lechnir of River Valley (40-3) losing by technical fall. At 125 pounds, Sparta’s Toby Mosely saw the same result falling to Cuba City’s Jarod Donar (43-0) also by tech fall. At 112 pounds, Adam Wiedl won by pin and at 119 pounds, Brandon Rickert beat Lodi’s Alex Ibinger 6-1 for the second time this week. And at 130 pounds, Derek VonRuden (31-16) scored a major upset of Marcus Hudson of Delavan-Darien (31-6) winning by pin in 5:36.
Still coming up for the Spartans is Morgan Leis (145), Tom Tourdot (152), Brandon Brueggen (171), Jordan Stanek (189) and Matt Tourdot (215). Unlike division one, if you lose your first match you are not out of the tournament. The top three finishers at each weight advance to the state tournament and if you lose your first match, you begin wrestling back for 2nd. CORRECTION: If you lose your first match, you must hope for the guy who beat you to win their next match. If they do, then you get the chance to keep wrestling for 2nd. Keep checking back here for updates on today’s action! I plan to post the next update at the end of the first round.
