4:10 pm — Dan Dawley continued his remarkable run today as he pinned his way to a regional championship. In the finals, Dawley topped no. 2 seed Tom Luethe of West Salem/Bangor by pin in 4:31. At 220, Michael Beeler won his third place match, but lost his second place bout by rule. At 285, Chris Beeler was pinned in the finals and is awaiting the results of the 3rd place match to see if he will have to wrestle his way to sectionals.
3:49 pm — A few more Sparta wrestlers are through to sectionals. Michael Murnane, Toby Mosley and Kyle Burkhalter joined John Roddick as Sparta’s regional champions. Coming in second was Bob Ragan who lost in the finals by pin in 1:23 to West Salem/Bangor’s Alex Peters, but won his second place match by rule. Falling just short of sectionals in third place was Paul Vantassel and Greg Skon. Both Vantassel and Skon won their third place matches, but lost by rule in their second place matches.
With just a few matches to go in the tournament, Sparta is going to win their regional for the third year in a row. The Spartans have 253.5 points to Viroqua’s 154 points.
2:56 pm — John Roddick became Sparta’s first regional champion of the day with a pin in 3:15 over Viroqua’s Ryan Vesbach (32-11). At 106 pounds, Dylan Winchel ran into a wall again against Viroqua’s Josh McClelland losing 11-2. By rule, Winchel finishes second on the day.
At 120 pounds, Brock Polhamus finished the day in second place after falling in the finals 6-3 to Mauston’s Spencer Davies (30-2). The same fate befell Tristan Zurfluh at 126 as he dropped a 5-2 decision to Adams-Friendship’s Hunter Johnson (27-9). Unfortunately, for Derek VonRuden, his tournament season came to an end with his 6-5 win over Wisconsin Dells’ Andrew McClyman. Justin Dolata, who beat VonRuden in the semis, lost his match in the finals and since he already beat VonRuden won second place by rule.
Sparta still has a stranglehold on the team title with 220.5 points, which is 75.5 better than second place Viroqua at 145.
1:50 pm — After completion of the semifinals, the Spartans find 10 wrestlers in the finals. Dylan Winchel, John Roddick, Brock Polhamus, Tristan Zurfluh, Michael Murnane, Toby Mosley, Bob Ragan, Kyle Burkhalter, Dan Dawley and Chris Beeler will be wrestling for a regional championship.
Derek VonRuden, Paul Vantassel, Greg Skon and Michael Beeler are going to need help. They are going to have to win their next match and hope for the guy who beat them in the semifinals to win their match in the finals. If that happens, they wrestle the loser in the finals for second. That is the only way they will be able to advance to the sectional tournament.
Sparta now has 199.5 points to West Salem/Bangor’s 116.5 and Viroqua’s 116 points. It’s looking pretty good right now for Sparta to advance to their third straight team sectional.
1:12 pm — Sparta is still holding onto a big lead with 185.5 points, which is 79.5 points better than second place Viroqua and 88.5 points better than third place Adams-Friendship.
Brock Polhamus came up with a big 7-1 win to advance to the finals over Viroqua’s Josh McClelland. McClelland is currently ranked 11th in the state. Joining Polhamus in the finals is Tristan Zurfluh who won 4-2 in overtime over Viroqua’s Kyle McClurg.
Sparta’s first loss of the day came at 132 pounds as Derek VonRuden dropped an 8-1 decision to Mauston’s Justin Dolata. VonRuden will have to win his next match if he wants to advance to sectionals for a chance at back-to-back trips to the state tournament. He will have to wrestle Wisconsin Dells’ Andrew McClyman (26-12) and win and hope that Dolata defeats Viroqua’s Erik Vesbach (32-6). If all of that happens, VonRuden will then have to wrestle Vesbach and beat him to advance to sectionals.
Moving on… at 138 pounds, Paul Vantassel lost his semifinal match to Wisconsin Dells’ Jon Mor by a 4-1 score. Michael Murnane advanced to the finals with a 9-3 victory over West Salem/Bangor’s Scott Craig and at 152 pounds, Toby Mosley is in the finals with a pin in 3:55 over West Salem/Bangor’s Brandon Bahr.
At 160, Bob Ragan advanced to the finals with a pin in 5:05 over Westfield Area’s Ryan McCartney. Up a weight class at 170, Greg Skon lost 11-3 to Viroqua’s Clay Fitzpatrick. At 182 pounds, Kyle Burkhalter advanced to the finals with a pin in 5:17 over Wisconsin Dells’ Billy Percival.
12:30 pm — Early on, Sparta holds a big lead over Westfield Area, West Salem/Bangor and Viroqua. The Spartans have 139.5 points to Viroqua’s 89, Westfield’s 86 and Viroqua’s 82.5.
Lots of byes in the first round as John Roddick, Brock Polhamus, Paul Vantassel, Michael Murnane, Toby Mosley, Kyle Burkhalter and Chris Beeler all received passes in their quarterfinal matches. At 106 pounds, Dylan Winchel has advanced to the finals with two pins. The first over Brian Braun of Wisconsin Dells in 1:02. In the semis, Winchel made quick and impressive work of Adams-Friendship’s Trevor McManus in 2:32. McManus entered the day ranked sixth in division two.
At 113, John Roddick advanced to the regional finals with a pin in 2:58 over Adams-Frenship’s Jessie Fritz. At 126, Tristan Zurfluh won by technical fall over West Salem/Bangor’s Josh Score by a score of 16-0. At 132, Derek VonRuden took only 1:37 before pinning West Salem/Bangor’s Mac Anderson. At 160, Bob Ragan pinned Viroqua’s Seth Morrison in 14 seconds. Up another weight class at 170, this week’s featured wrestler, Greg Skon, pinned Westfield Area’s Cody Mantz in 3:05. The pins kept coming with Dan Dawley’s pin in 2:47 over Viroqua’s Carl Fortney and at 220 pounds, Michael Beeler defeated Wisconsin Dell’s Zach Cicero 6-2.
