Sparta wins thriller against Holmen 35-27

Saved by a foot. That statement of small proportions spoke volumes Thursday evening about the entire Sparta-Holmen dual, but could apply specifically to a number of matches that the Spartans pulled out at the last second.

Everywhere you looked Thursday night, Spartans were coming up big.  Chris Beeler’s victory in the final two seconds at heavyweight was big.  The master of escapes Nick Winchel pulled out a victory in the final seconds of his match when Holmen’s Sam Schank, who appeared to have a takedown with about 10 seconds to go, was called out of bounds–his right foot inches from the line.  Those two wins right there were enough to decide the dual, but those weren’t the only big ones.

At 135, Paul Vantassel picked up a huge pin and set the tone for a Spartan surge that would erase a 27-12 deficit and put the Spartans on top for the first time since they were up 6-3 after Xavier Lopez’s victory at 171.  Vantassel’s victory was followed up by another pin by Michael Murnane at 140 that put the Spartans in the lead for good at 28-27.  Toby Mosley picked up a major decision victory at 145 before Morgan Leis closed out the dual with a victory at 152.

While the wins by Winchel, Beeler and Vantassel were arguably the difference makers in the dual, a number of other Spartans came up big when they had too.  At 171, Xavier Lopez picked up a big pin that cancelled out Holmen’s pin at 189.  At 215, Tom Tourdot controlled the entire match to pick up a major decision victory over Joe Inglett (not to be confused with the Brewers’ Joe Inglett).

It was a huge victory for the Spartans and one that could have easily gone the other way.  Sparta won eight matches to Holmen’s six and weathered a four-victory Holmen surge that put the Vikings up 27-12 with five matches left.  With the win, the Spartans improve to 5-0 on the year in duals and 1-0 in the MVC.

Below are individual results from tonight’s dual…

160  —  Isaac Hackett (Holmen) major decisioned Alex Hemmersbach 15-7
171  —  Xavier Lopez pinned DJ Meagher (Holmen) 2:42
189  —  Ben Fiers (Holmen) pinned Clinton LaBeause 3:10
215  —  Tom Tourdot major decisioned Joe Inglett (Holmen) 8-0
285  —  Chris Beeler decisioned Trevor Scholze (Holmen) 3-1
103  —  Darius Wright (Holmen) tech falled Dylan Winchel 17-2, 6:00
112  —  Avery Hackett (Holmen) decisioned Tristan Zurfluh 5-1
119   —  James Bennett (Holmen) pinned Bryce Nowaczyk 3:41
125  —  Ryan Stalsberg (Holmen) decisioned Derek VonRuden 5-1
130  —  Nick Winchel decisioned Sam Schank (Holmen) 3-2
135  —  Paul Vantassel pinned Dan Niccum (Holmen) 1:09
140  —  Michael Murnane pinned Brad Hanson (Holmen) 1:53
145  —  Toby Mosley major decisioned Kyle Salek (Holmen) 10-2
152  —  Morgan Leis decisioned Luke Medinger (Holmen) 11-4
FINAL:  Sparta 35 – Holmen 27

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The varsity will see action next on Tuesday, December 14th at La Crosse Logan.  The JV will wrestle this weekend at a tournament in Marshfield.  We will try to get results from Marshfield posted here at some point this weekend.

Photos from tonight’s dual will be posted to Spartanwrestling.com either late on Sunday or early Monday.  Check back them for pictures from the middle school, JV and varsity matches.  Finally, a big thanks to Mike Montgomery for running the live blog tonight.  From what I hear, it had a pretty good audience.

And with that, let’s just close by saying congrats Spartans on a huge victory tonight!!