9:32 pm — With a 9-0 victory at 126 pounds, Tristan Zurfluh clinches a Spartan victory over Lodi. Lodi’s streak of 10 straight state team tournament appearances has ended. Sparta up 30-14 with two matches to go.
9:24 pm — Sparta’s Brock Polhamus defeats Grant Robertson 9-2. Sparta now up 27-14 with three matches to go. Spartans should be favored in every match
9:16 pm — Lodi’s John Joutras picks up a 6-3 victory over John Roddick. Sparta 24 – Lodi 14.
9:09 pm — Sparta is clamping down. Dylan Winchel defeats Lodi’s Jason Clapper 7-1. Sparta 24 – Lodi 11.
9:01 pm — Chris Beeler extends Sparta’s lead to 21-11 with a 7-0 victory over Lodi’s Ryland Crow. Go time for Spartans.
8:51 pm — Sparta’s Michael Beeler picks up a big victory over Lodi’s Ben Steuck. This is a big win. Score was 4-3. Beeler has not wrestled much this year from injury and Steuck is a strong wrestler coming in with a 29-9 record. Sparta 18 – Lodi 11.
8:43 pm — Lodi’s Michael Watters picks up another 4-point major decision victory over Dan Dawley by a 17-4 score. Watters is a very tough wrestler and Dawley did a great job in the third period to avoid the technical fall and save bonus points for the Spartans. Score is now Sparta 15 – Lodi 11.
8:34 pm — Lodi’s Jessie Ziegler picks up a 4-point major decision victory over Kyle Burkhalter to push the score to 15-7 in favor of the Spartans. Burkhalter did his job in the losing effort by not giving up more bonus points against one of Lodi’s top wrestlers in Ziegler.
8:28 pm — Greg Skon wrestles a tough match, but falls 8-6 to Bryce Ziegler. Skon was working an arm bar against an exhausted Bryce Ziegler and was almost about to turn him before being called for potentially dangerous with 15 seconds left in the third period. Sparta 15 – Lodi 3.
8:21 pm — After three matches, Sparta is up 15-0 thanks to huge wins from Bob Ragan and Michael Murnane and another by Toby Mosley. The dual started at 138 pounds and Michael Murnane found himself down 6-1 before mounting a comeback and winning in overtime. Toby Mosley followed that with a pin and then Bob Ragan upset Lodi’s Jordan Worthing with a pin to put the Spartans up 15-0 heading into the 170-pound dual.
Great win by a group of student athletes who never lost sight of their goals AND worked like dogs to make it happen. Congrats to Coach Larsen and assistants for a job well done….now go to work and bring home a TEAM STATE TITLE!
With Spartan Pride….
L. Noll