Despite battling sickness and injuries, Sparta cruised to a 41-20 victory over Aquinas Thursday evening. That victory, coupled with Holmen’s 44-19 victory over Tomah, allowed Sparta to become the sole unbeaten team in the conference at 3-0.
The marquee match of the night lived up to is billing as Tom Tourdot wrestled Lucas Shappell to triple overtime before surrendering an escape in the final overtime to lose 4-3. Each wrestler escaped in the first two overtimes and couldn’t muster a takedown or any other points. This matchup of two of the top wrestlers in the conference will easily go down as one of the best matches in the conference all year.
Sparta and Aquinas traded victories for the first nine matches before Aquinas forfeited matches at 125 and 130 to break up the back-and-forth action. In all, Aquinas gave up three victories by forfeit while Sparta saw a few new faces in the lineup due to sickness. Jacob Denton stepped in at 125 to pick up a forfeit victory while everyone from Derek VonRuden up to Toby Mosley moved up a weight class to accommodate a sick Michael Murnane. Murnane should be back in a week’s time and the movement of the guys in the middle weights worked out pretty well for the Spartans.
At 112, Tristan Zurfluh battled back from behind and pinned his opponent with a powerful half nelson in the second period. Before turning Aquinas’ Connor Morgan, Zurfluh had been trailing for the entire match. It was a good victory for the Spartans considering the sickness and injuries the team is dealing with.
Match-by-match results are below…
160 — Alex Hemmersbach decisioned Nick Poellinger (Aquinas) 11-4
171 — Jimmy tramadult.com Coady (Aquinas) pinned Ben Schaitel 1:37
189 — Xavier Lopez major decisioned Anthony Arbanas (Aquinas) 12-1
215 — Lucas Shappell (Aquinas) decisioned Tom Tourdot 4-3 in Triple Overtime
285 — Chris Beeler won by forfeit
103 — Jordan Corcoran (Aquinas) major decisioned Dylan Winchel 14-1
112 — Tristan Zurfluh pinned Connor Morgan (Aquinas) 3:19
119 — Mason Miller (Aquinas) major decisioned Bryce Nowaczyk 8-0
125 — Jacob Denton won by forfeit
130 — Derek VonRuden won by forfeit
135 — Nick Winchel decisioned Max Irons (Aquinas) 11-4
140 — John Paul Soldner (Aquinas) decisioned Paul Vantassel 7-4
145 — Toby Mosley major decisioned Austin Stenger (Aquinas) 13-0
152 — Morgan Leis decisioned Danny Mullaney (Aquinas) 5-1
FINAL: Sparta 41 – Aquinas 20
Sparta travels to Stevens Point over the weekend for a weird dual scramble tournament. It’s not really a dual tournament or a scramble, but some weird combination of the two that I’ll try to explain in a preview post later today. The only thing I can tell you is that “Cadott Guy” as I have come to call him will be there and will be hating on the Spartans. For those of you who are like what the hell is he talking about, “Cadott Guy” is a troll that has made himself present at almost every live blog this year and likes to brag about how Cadott will hammer the Spartans at the Stevens Point tournament. It’s too bad that his team won’t make it out of the pool action with Holmen on the same side. Enough smack.
