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Michael Murnane picked up a big 7-2 victory over Aquinas' John Paul Soldner, an honorable mention in D2 according to Wisconsin Wrestling Online. Above picture from last year's Spartan Invite.
La Crosse Aquinas started the night off on a good note, but it didn’t last long. After Aquinas’ Kyle Sieck picked up a pin over Logan Degenhardt at 220 in the first match of the night, the Spartans would rip off 13 straight victories to win 69-6. Of those 13 wins, five came by pin, three by forfeit, one by major decision and another by technical fall as the Spartans improved to 2-0 in the MVC and 8-0 overall.
Aquinas was without their best wrestler in Jordan Corcoran. At Corcoran’s usual spot in the lineup, 113 pounds, John Roddick received a forfeit. John Paul Soldner, ranked an honorable mention by Wisconsin Wrestling Online, was no match for Michael Murnane as Murnane cruised to a 7-2 victory at 145. Brock Polhamus, Toby Mosley, Bob Ragan, Kyle Burkhalter and Daniel Dawley all picked up pins for the Spartans while Dylan Winchel won by technical fall. It was a solid night for the Spartans as they returned to action after being off since December 23rd.
Full results are below…
220 — Kyle Sieck (Aquinas) pinned Logan Degenhardt 5:53
285 — Chris Beeler won by forfeit
106 — Dylan Winchel won by technical fall over Nick Burns (Aquinas) 18-2
113 — John Roddick won by forfeit
120 — Brock Polhamus pinned Hank Lichter (Aquinas) 3:40
126 — Tristan Zurfluh won by major decision over Mason Miller (Aquinas) 13-3
132 — Derek VonRuden won by forfeit
138 — Paul Vantassel won by forfeit
145 — Michael Murnane decisioned (Aquinas) John Paul Soldner 7-2
152 — Toby Mosley pinned Austen Stenger (Aquinas) 2:42
160 — Bob Ragan pinned Chris Poellinger (Aquinas) 2:54
170 — Greg Skon decisioned Nick Poellinger (Aquinas) 5-1
182 — Kyle Burkhalter pinned Emil Walleser (Aquinas) 3:46
195 — Daniel Dawley pinned Max Breidel (Aquinas) 3:35
FINAL: Sparta 69 — Aquinas 6
It was a solid effort to start off 2012. The Spartans will have little time off as they had to the Lancaster Invite on Saturday. Joining the Spartans in Lancaster will be Boscobel, Cuba City, Dubuque Senior, Dubuque Walhert, Fennimore, Lancaster, Madison West, Richland Center, River Ridge/Cassville, Riverdale and Viroqua.
The Spartans will want to keep their eyes on Viroqua, Cuba City and Richland Center as those teams will all be in Sparta’s sectional. Viroqua will also be in Sparta’s regional. Last year, the Spartans obliterated the competition winning the tournament by 98 points over runner-ups Viroqua and 100.5 points over third place Richland Center. The year before that, the Spartans also won the tournament finishing with 331 points to Viroqua’s 273.5. Finally, the year before the Spartans again won the tournament edging out host Lancaster 194-193. Going in, the Spartans should be favorites to pick up their fourth Lancaster Invite title in as many tries.
The next dual on the schedule for the Spartans is a home dual against Onalaska on Thursday, January 12th. Two days after that is the dual scramble at Stevens Point followed by a showdown with Holmen on Thursday, the 19th in Holmen. It’s going to get busy here quickly for the Spartans with a lot of meaningful matches coming up in the next month. As always, we’ll have previews and more here on Spartanwrestling.com.
