Sparta hosts the 39th installment of the Sparta Invite and it looks to be stacked full of tough teams and individuals yet again. Adams-Friendship, Blair-Tyalor, Desoto, Holmen, Iowa-Grant, Neillsville, New Lisbon, North Crawford/Seneca, Reedsburg, Wautoma/Wild Rose, Westfield-Pioneer and Weston/Ithaca are the teams making up this year’s field. Sparta will look to defend last year’s team title and hold off ranked teams that include Holmen (9th D1) and Weston/Ithaca (HM D3). Neillsville is currently unranked, but was as high as 10th earlier in the season. Now that we know the teams, let’s check out some of the individuals to look out for today…
- Adams-Friendship – Trenton McManus at 106 (7th D2), Cole Clark at 113 (6th D2), Trevor McManus at 120 (4th D2)
- Blair-Taylor – Matt Massman at 126 (6th D3)
- Desoto – Joe Obert at 120 (7th D3), Layne Peyton at 126 (HM D3), Lance Buckles at 132 (HM D3), Isaac Brosinski at 138 (6th D3) and Cole Johnson at 285 (1st D3)
- Holmen – Darius Wright at 126 (4th D1), Ryan Stalsberg at 132 (4th D1), Avery Hackett at 145 (HM D1), Tyler Westpfahl at 170 (15th D1), Duncan McKinney at 182 (13th D1), Noah Risch at 195 (9th D1), Charles Serauskas at 220 (15th D1) and Hunter Hauser at 285 (4th D1)
- Iowa-Grant – Tucker Sarbacker at 138 (8th D3), Luke Nowak at 145 (HM D3), Derek Peat at 195 (7th D3), Cody Rider at 220 (7th D3) and Ben McFall at 285 (8th D3)
- Neillsville – Jared Boon at 120 (10th D2), Phillip Opelt at 126 (1st D2), Michael Chadwick at 145 (9th D2) and Mitch Pohlman at 160 (8th D2)
- New Lisbon – Cullen Pederson at 145 (1st D3) and Myles Conner at 152 (HM D3)
- North Crawford/Seneca – Jared Grimseld at 220 (HM D3) and Noah Brown at 285 (HM D3)
- Reedsburg – Wyatt Rabuck at 113 (HM D1) and Nate Erbs at 126 (HM D1)
- Sparta – Dylan Winchel at 113 (2nd D2), John Roddick at 120 (5th D2), Brock Polhamus at 138 (HM D2), Michael Murnane at 145 (7th D2), Kyle Burkhalter at 182 (5th D2) and Daniel Dawley at 195 (10th D2)
- Wautoma/Wild Rose – Bryce Bennot at 152 (HM D2)
- Weston/Ithaca – Hunter Dischler at 106 (3rd D3), Cody Willis at 152 (HM D3), Wyatt Seep at 170 (2nd D3) and Atticus Sharp at 195 (9th D3)
If you were following along, that’s three top ranked wrestlers in Desoto’s Cole Johnson at 285, Neillsville’s Phillip Opelt at 126 and New Lisbon’s Cullen Pederson at 145. There are two second-ranked wrestlers in Sparta’s Dylan Winchel at 113 and Weston/Ithaca’s Wyatt Seep at 170. Third place wrestlers include Weston/Ithaca’s Hunter Dischler at 106 while fourth ranked wreslters include Adams-Friendship’s Trevor McManus at 120, Holmen’s Darius Wright at 126 and Ryan Stalsberg at 132 and Hunter Hauser at 285.
The deepest weight class appears to be 285 with four ranked wrestlers including the top ranked wrestler in division three in Cole Johnson and the fourth ranked wrestler in division one in Hunter Hauser. Other deep weights include 145 with five ranked wrestlers. At 145, we find Holmen’s Avery Hackett and Iowa-Grant’s Luke Nowak earning honorable mention rankings, Neillsville’s Michael Chadwick at 9th, Sparta’s Michael Murnane at 7th and New Lisbon’s Cullen Pederson topping the division two ranks.
In other words, there are some tough individuals wrestling in Sparta tomorrow. It will also be a good preview for regionals and sectionals in the next few weeks. Adams-Friendship and Westfield are teams the Spartans will encounter at regionals while the Spartans have the potential to meet Neillsville in the team sectional should each team win their regional tournaments.
It’s going to be a good day of wrestling. There are now two sets of individual rankings out for Wisconsin Wrestlers. There are the Wisconsin Wrestling Online rankings, which is what we used when gathering the rankings above and there are the recently updated Crossface Rankings. The Crossface rankings are a bit friendlier to the Spartans. Check them out below…
- Dylan Winchel, 1st at 113
- John Roddick, 4th at 120
- Brock Polhamus, 8th at 132
- Michael Murnane, honorable mention at 145
- Kyle Burkhalter, 3rd at 182
- Daniel Dawley, honorable mention at 195
We will have an update at the end of the day with summaries of how each wrestler did and how all the teams finished along with some pictures at some point Sunday. Let’s go Spartans!