Spartans 7th at Badger State

In what was one of the toughest team fields in recent year at Badger State, Sparta finished near the back of a tightly group packed of teams in 7th place. Merrill led most of the day and finished as team champions with 184.5 points followed by Iowa Grant with 164 and Stoughton with 160. After that it was a game of musical chairs between Sycamore IL, Owatonna MN, River Valley and Sparta for that 4th place spot. At the end of the day, Sycamore finished 4th with 135 points, Owatonna 5th with 125.5, River Valley with 123 and one point back, Sparta with 122.

The Spartans were led by Dylan Winchel who improved to 18-1 on the year with a 11-4 victory in the finals over Owatonna’s Brandon Moen. John Roddick had Sparta’s next best finish in 3rd place with a 14-3 major decision victory at 113 pounds. Losing in their third place bouts were Kyle Burkhalter and Chris Beeler.

After the four above, we had Derek VonRuden finishing 5th, Toby Mosley 6th, Chase Bernett 7th and Michael Murnane and Greg Skon in 8th.  Summarized results for the Spartans are below.

106  —  Dylan Winchel, 1st Place, 4-0 with two pins
113  —  John Roddick, 3rd Place, 3-1 with a pin and major decision
120  —  Brock Polhamus, Did Not Place, 0-2
126  —  Tristan Zurfluh, Did Not Place, 1-2 with a major decision
132  —  Julius Julson, Did Not Place, 0-2
138  —  Derek VonRuden, 5th Place, 4-1 with three pins
145  —  Michael Murnane, 8th Place, 2-3 with a pin and major decision
152  —  Toby Mosley, 6th Place, 3-2 with two pins and a major decision
160  —  Robert Ragan, Did Not Place, 1-2
170  —  Greg Skon, 8th Place, 2-3
182  —  Kyle Burkhalter, 4th Place, 2-2 with a pin
195  —  Erik Larsen, Did Not Place, 1-2
220  —  Chase Bernett, 7th Place, 3-2 with a pin
285  —  Chris Beeler, 4th Place, 2-2 with a pin

The Spartans lost a number of one point matches throughout the day. Just one or two of those matches going in Sparta’s favor might have been enough to push Sparta’s team total up to 4th place. It was that close in the end.

For full match-by-match results from the Badger State Invite, please click here.

The varsity is off until Thursday, January 5th when they return to action at La Crosse Aquinas. The JV host their own tournament on Friday, December 30th with a start time of 9:00 am.

Congrats Sparta and Dylan Winchel on their finished today in Madison.