The 2011-12 Schedule & Results page is now updated and ready to view. Much of last year’s schedule is intact, but there is one new addition that will see Sparta facing some tough competition from our neighbors to the west.
Sparta will be returning to the Reedsburg Invitational, the Harrisonville Tournament (Missouri), the Badger State Invite in Madison, the Lancaster Invitational, Stevens Point Tournament, Sparta Invitational. The JV will see action against Blair-Taylor this Thursday here in Sparta and will wrestle at the Melrose-Mindoro Tournament, Marshfield Tournament, the Spartan JV Invitational, Kickapoo Tournament, baraboo Tournament and the Sauk Prairie Tournament.
Sparta will no longer be wrestling in Rochester, but will instead travel to the Kasson-Mantorville Swalla Duals. Host Kasson-Mantorville is a perennial power in Minnesota high school wrestling. Last year Kasson finished third in the MN Class AA state team wrestling tournament, which is equivalent to Division Two in Wisconsin. This year they enter the season ranked fourth with highly ranked wrestlers at the following weight classes: 106-8th, 120-3rd, 132-5th, 138-4th, 152-4th, 170-8th, 195-1st and 285-2nd.
Kasson-Mantorville finished last season with a record of 27-3. One of those losses came to Simley at the Kasson-Mantorville Swalla Duals by a 41-21 score. Simley is the defending Minnesota Class AA champion defeating Scott West 39-16 last year in the state team finals. Simley will bring their top ranking to the duals again this year and with it, six of the state’s top ranked wrestlers in Minnesota Class AA. Overall as a team, Simley has 10 ranked wrestlers. All rankings, team and individual, come from Minnesota’s version of the Crossface, The Guillotine.
Beyond Kasson-Mantorville and Simley, the only other teams garnering votes are Stewartville and Lewiston-Altura/Rushford-Peterson. This should certainly be a step up in competition for the Spartans compared to their time in Rochester.
Other big dates on the schedule include the dual with Weston/Ithaca on Friday, December 9th. Last year’s dual came down to the final seconds of the final match when Tristan Zurfluh pulled out the win for the Spartans. The Spartan Invitational on Saturday, January 21st is always a tough tournament for Sparta and one where they have not won very often. Other big duals include on the road at Holmen on Thursday, January 19th. And then there is always the big Sparta-Tomah dual and this year that will fall on Thursday, February 2nd.
Regionals this year is at West Salem, team sectional is back in Wisconsin Dells while sectionals will be at Richland Center. As with previous years, we will have live blogs for most home duals and some of the away ones as well. Just check back to Spartanwrestling.com in the week before each dual to see if a live blog will be running.
Go Spartans!
