With a 66-9 demolition of La Crosse Central Thursday night, the Spartans improved to 4-1 in the MVC and 8-3 overall. The win was the Spartans’ 100th MVC victory joining Holmen as the only other teams with more than 100 wins in the history of the conference. Holmen leads all MVC teams in total wins with 108.
The much anticipated match pitting the top ranked wrestlers in Wisconsin division one in junior Ben Thornton and division two in junior Dylan Winchel was one-sided. Thornton controlled the match from the beginning and emerged with a 12-3 victory. The defending division one state champion at 106 pounds was 49-0 last year, is undefeated this year and has not lost since the final match of his freshman season, which was the state finals at 106 pounds.
Outside Winchel’s loss to Thornton, Sparta’s only other defeat was at 106 pounds where Central’s Josh Kuhse (26-6) won by 17-2 technical fall over Corey Zimmerman. Otherwise, it was all Sparta all day. Sparta picked up four first period pins and six overall to go along with five forfeit victories. In every match that the Spartans won, they won by pin or forfeit. Here’s how everyone did…
113 – Ben Thornton (Central) won by major decision over Dylan Winchel 12-3
120 – John Roddick won by forfeit
126 – Steven Kelly pinned Kyle Dalton (Central) in 5:40
132 – Brock Polhamus pinned Broc Bina (Central) in 1:52
138 – Tristan Zurfluh pinned Koy Rolff (Central) in 1:27
145 – Michael Murnane won by forfeit
152 – Dillon Erickson pinned Graham Fuchs (Central) in 3:11
160 – Walker Polhamus pinned Lawton Riness (Central) in 1:30
170 – Greg Skon won by forfeit
182 – Kyle Burkhalter won by forfeit
195 – Daniel Dawley won by forfeit
220 – Chase Bernett pinned Jarod Martinez (Central) in 0:52
285 – DOUBLE FORFEIT
106 – Josh Kuhse (Central) won by technical fall over Corey Zimmerman 17-2
SPARTA 66 – CENTRAL 9
After the Central drubbing, Sparta experienced a much more difficult road at the always tough Kasson-Mantorville duals. In fact, they opened the tournament against the top-ranked team in Minnesota Class AA and #19 nationally in Kasson-Mantorville and fell 58-9. The Spartans followed that with a 40-31 loss to Class AAA honorable mention Centennial. In the final dual of the day, the Spartans dropped a 39-31 decision to Lewiston-Altura-Rushford-Peterson. We don’t have full results yet for the Kasson-Mantorville and LARP duals, but we do for the Centennial dual. Here are those…
106 – Jack Bergeland (Centennial) pinned Corey Zimmerman in 4:22
113 – Dylan Winchel defeated Mike Mischke (Centennial) 1-0
120 – John Roddick defeated Mike Matheson (Centennial) 5-3
126 – Matt Mulberry (Centennial) pinned Steven Kelly in 1:50
132 – Brock Polhamus defeated Amakale Tilleskjor (Centennial) 7-4
138 – Tristan Zurfluh pinned Tanner Mazanec (Centennial) in 3:11
145 – Michael Murnane won by technical fall over Noah Benson (Centennial) 18-3, 5:34
152 – Will Noll (Centennial) won by major decision over Dillon Erickson 13-5
160 – Tom Handley (Centennial) pinned Walker Polhamus in 1:32
170 – Greg Skon pinned Marshall Johnson (Centennial) in 2:48
182 – Kyle Burkhalter won by technical fall over Kodie Sickmann (Centennial) 18-2, 5:57
195 – Andy Falardeau (Centennial) won by forfeit
220 – Justice Davis (Centennial) won by forfeit
285 – Andrew Gustafson (Centennial) pinned Chase Bernett in 3:31
CENTENNIAL 40 – SPARTA 31
The Spartans held a 31-22 with three matches to go before forfeiting at 195 and 220. That gave Centennial a 34-31 lead heading into the final match of the dual. In that match, Centennial’s Andrew Gustafson pinned Chase Bernett in the second period. Gustafson is the fifth ranked wrestler in Minnesota Class AAA, which is equivalent to division one in Wisconsin.
The three losses to tough competition in Minnesota dropped the Spartans overall record to 8-6 overall. The Spartans are off until Thursday when they face Tomah in what could be another close dual for the Spartans. Those rivalry matches always are.
