Sparta dominates Lancaster Invite

Domination might be an inadequate word to describe what the Spartans did to the competition on Saturday at the Lancaster Invite.  Sparta had four champions, two runner-ups and another five wrestlers finish in the top four Saturday en route to 249.5 team points, which was 98 points better than runner-up Viroqua who finished with 151.5 and third place Richland Center who finished with 149 points.

Leading the way for the Spartans was Tom Tourdot who was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Wreslter.  Tourdot defeated the second-ranked wrestler in division two (Viroqua’s Trent Vesbach) and the fifth-ranked wrestler (Richland Center’s Logan Schmidt) en route to the championship in a stacked 215-pound bracket.

Other champions for Sparta included Nick Winchel, Toby Mosley and Morgan Leis.  Winchel picked up his 20th victory of the year by defeating Lancaster’s Trenton Cornell 7-5 in the finals.  At 145, Toby Mosley improved to 19-4 on the year with a 5-2 victory over Ethan Soderstrom of Lancaster in the finals.  Up one weight class at 152 pounds, Morgan Leis defeated Boscobel’s Dustin Smith 9-3 in the finals to improve to 16-3 on the year.

Runner-ups for the Spartans included Dylan Winchel and Michael Murnane.  Summarized results for each wrestler are below.  The numbers in parenthesis after the results is each wrestler’s season record.  For full match-by-match results from Lancaster, please click here.

103  —  Dylan Winchel, 2nd Place, 3-1 with a pin, (17-7)
112  —   Tristan Zurfluh, 4th Place, 3-2 with a pin and tech fall, (15-9)
119  —  Bryce Nowaczyk, 4th Place, 4-2 with a pin and major decision, (13-11)
125  —  Derek VonRuden, 3rd Place, 4-1, (17-7)
130  —  Nick Winchel, 1st Place, 4-0 with a pin, (20-3)
135  —  Paul Vantassel, 5th Place, 3-2 with a pin, (17-8)
140  —  Michael Murnane, 2nd Place, 3-1 with a major decision, (17-7)
145  —  Toby Mosley, 1st Place, 4-0 with two pins, (19-4)
152  —  Morgan Leis, 1st Place, 4-0 with a pin and major decision, (16-3)
160  —  Alex Hemmersbach, Did Not Place, 2-2 with a major decision, (11-13)
171  —  Xavier Lopez, 3rd Place, 4-1 with a pin, (13-10)
189  —  Kyle Burkhalter, 6th Place, 3-3 with two pins, (4-5)
215  —  Tom Tourdot, 1st Place, 4-0 with a major decision, (22-1)
285  —  Chris Beeler, 4th Place, 3-2 with a pin, (16-8)

It was the second straight year the Spartans won the Lancaster Invite in impressive fashion.  Last year the Spartans won with 331 points to Viroqua’s 273.5 points.