For the fourth year in a row, the MVC championship will come down to the winner of the Sparta-Tomah dual. The Spartans wrestled one of their best duals of the year en route to a 59-9 victory over La Crosse Central. This is the same Central team that Tomah squeaked by with a score of 33-30 earlier this year.
However, that doesn’t mean anything. Many thought Holmen would be the first team to beat Tomah in the MVC in six years, but the Timberwolves responded with a resounding 51-22 victory over the Vikings. Holmen was missing a few of their starters during that dual and Sparta will be entering the dual with Tomah free of sickness and injury setting up what should be one of the most exciting duals in this rivalry’s recent memory.
While Sparta benefited from six forfeits, the matches that were actually wrestled were against some decent competition. Central boasted five Bi-State medalists and a few of them were taken down to the wire. Derek VonRuden was controlling the match with Central’s Cal Thornton and was leading 7-5 in the third period before getting caught in a granby. Thornton was a state qualifier last year and placed sixth at Bi-State this year. At 112 pounds, Adam Wiedl dominated Blade Spindler who brought home a 12th place medal from this year’s Bi-State. And at 103 pounds, Sparta’s Bryce Nowaczyk hung in there with Central’s Alex Valentine–a fourth place finisher at this year’s Bi-State Classic.
See the match-by-match results below…
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135 — Michael Keilen (LC) decisioned Nick Winchel 5-1
140 — Jesse Amundson pinned John Sedlacek (LC) 3:21
145 — Nick Anderson won by forfeit
152 — Morgan Leis won by forfeit
160 — Tom Tourdot won by forfeit
171 — Brandon Brueggen won by forfeit
189 — Jordan Stanek won by forfeit
215 — Matt Tourdot won by forfeit
285 — Steve Stevenson pinned Kyle Wacker (LC) 1:55
103 — Alex Valentine (LC) decisioned Bryce Nowaczyk 10-4
112 — Adam Wiedl major decisioned Blade Spindler (LC) 13-4
119 — Brandon Rickert major decisioned Dylan Weigel (LC) 11-2
125 — Toby Mosley decisioned Troy Richert (LC) 6-3
130 — Cal Thornton (LC) decisioned Derek VonRuden 12-7
FINAL: Sparta 59 – La Crosse Central 9
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The win improves Sparta’s dual record to 16-0 and 5-0 in the MVC, which exceeds the start of the 2003-04 team that started 15-0 and advanced to the team state semifinals. Sparta’s varsity and JV travel to the Rochester Tournament this Saturday before preparing for the dual against Tomah on Tuesday.
Again, we will have a live blog of Tuesday night’s dual against Tomah. Tell your cousin in England, your relative in Florida or anyone who can’t make the dual, but will have an internet connection that they should visit Spartanwrestling.com to follow the action.
