The Fountain Hills High School wrestling team has sectionals this weekend and members prepared with their final two meets of the regular season this past week. The Falcons hosted a dual meet with Odyssey Institute on Wednesday, Feb. 1, and then wrestled Valley Christian and Northwest Christian on Thursday, Feb. 2.

The Falcons won 38-25 at home on senior night and they honored seniors JP Cahill, Ty Jablonsky, Cy Dethlefs, Tyson Rynearson, Brandon Despain and Wyatt Mowers.

Several Falcons beat their opponents from Odyssey Institute, but Cahill and junior Ty Flynn’s victories were clinics. Cahill won 17-2 by technical fall, and Flynn pinned his opponent in less than 30 seconds to win.

Nine Falcons placed in sectionals last year and advanced to the state tournament. Cahill didn’t place in sectionals but did a lot of work in the offseason and has a team best 38-5 record ahead of this year’s postseason.

“Just keep going hard,” Cahill said. “I mean, I put in all the preseason work. Now is the time to focus on getting past sectionals and then focusing on state. It’s all one thing at a time. Focus match by match and then go from there.”

Flynn was the only Falcon who placed at state last season, and he wants to improve on his fourth place finish. Flynn has a 36-5 record entering the postseason, which is only one loss better than fellow junior Ty Langer, who is 36-6 entering sectionals.

“I think I’m just going to focus on my personal moves, everything I want to do in sectionals, tomorrow,” Langer said on Wednesday. “It’s the last chance I got at live matches and then straight to sectionals after that.”

Fellow junior Lucas Phillips joins his classmates with a 29-12 record and high hopes for sectionals. The juniors did not have sectionals their freshman year because of COVID-19, so they went straight to the state tournament. Flynn said last year that helped his nerves, but Langer said he felt the opposite effect when he got to the first round of the postseason.

“Last year, I was all nervous,” Langer said. “My freshman year, there weren’t sectionals, so last year I kind of got scared in my match and that’s how I lost and got to the bottom of the bracket. I feel like this year, with all the nerves gone, I just feel a lot better, a lot calmer. We’re going to hope that helps.”

The Falcons have clear heads about sectionals. They will take it one match at a time, and hope their hard work pays off. Outside of Cahill, Jablonsky (14-6), Dethlefs (12-7) and Mowers (23-14) all have positive records and want to make the best of their final postseason.

“Here on out, until sectionals, just work hard, don’t stop working,” Langer said. “Don’t take days off, just power through to sectionals and power through to state.”

The Division IV Central sectionals will take place on Saturday, Feb. 11, at Mogollon High School in Heber, Ariz. The Falcons will compete with 12 other teams and only the top four finishers in each weight class advance to state. Wrestling starts at 10 a.m. on Saturday, and there will be two mats throughout the tournament.