The Seton Catholic Prep Sentinels were not ready for the Fountain Hills High School wrestling team. Fountain Hills hosted a section dual last Wednesday, Jan. 11, and the Falcons won almost every match in their opening dual with the Sentinels. The only loss was a forfeit because the Falcons didn’t have an athlete in that weight class.

Pin after pin, the Falcons outmaneuvered their opponents and put on a show in the only home meet of the season. The Falcons are an older team, with 12 upperclassmen and eight seniors on a roster of 19, but only four seniors are seasoned veterans that have wrestled all four years.

Seniors JP Cahill, Brandon Despain and Ty Jablonsky have wrestled each year at Fountain Hills, and Cy Dethlefs wrestled at another school for three years before transferring to Fountain Hills. The only equalizer in wrestling is weight classes, and no matter how long individual Falcons have been on the team, they improve each other constantly in practice.

“The good and bad thing about our team is, everyone’s good,” Despain said. “Anyone can beat anybody, and that always helps in practice. We just always go at it in practice. There are no free pins in practice, you have to work for what you want.”

Despain didn’t wrestle in the Coolidge invitational the weekend before Wednesday’s home meet, but he was healthy to wrestle at home. Despain dropped down to 157 lbs. because junior Lucas Phillips took his starting spot in 165, and Philips took fifth at the Coolidge invitational. Phillips improved and claimed fourth place this past weekend in the Dysart Demon Classic tournament.

Philips dropped down from his initial weight because of junior Ty Langer. There were four Falcons at 175 to start the season, and Langer came out on top. Langer took third place at Coolidge, and he placed third again at Dysart this weekend.

Senior Tyson Rynearson has had a completely different experience in his weight class competition at 157 lbs. His closest competition is two freshmen, John Varga in 157 and Riley Murdock at 150. Even though Rynearson is in his second wrestling season, he's stepped up as a leader and took both newcomers under his wing.

“Well, you got to teach them of course, since I am the closest that they have in their weight class,” Rynearson said. “And you got to look out for them, but they learn quick and next year, maybe two years from now, they’ll be as good as anyone on the team. I think it’s very interesting how fast people can grow.”

The Falcons are winning a lot of matches and having fun while doing it. After going 2-1 in duals at home, the Falcons took fourth place out of 16 teams at Dysart this weekend. Seniors Jablonsky and Wyatt Mowers each placed third, Cahill took fourth, and junior Ty Flynn won first place for the second week in a row.

“Always competing just gets us a lot better,” Philips said. “Our conditioning has gotten better, our technique, our flow and our speed especially is getting better day by day.”

The Falcons have sustained a few injuries, and they hope to return a few wrestlers by sectionals on Saturday, Feb. 11. Dethlefs, Murdock, and seniors Franklin Fiola and Heath Edwards were all injured for the home meet.

The Falcons remain optimistic about their chances for the state tournament. Last year, nine Falcons advanced beyond sectionals and went to state. Only Flynn placed, taking home fourth place as a sophomore.

The Falcons will compete in the Tiger Open at Millennium High School this Saturday, Jan. 21. They’ll have two more duals before sectionals on Friday, Jan. 27 and Thursday, Feb. 2.

“Priorities until state is pencil in those techniques, sharpen them up and kick some butt out there,” Rynearson said. “If you lose, you lose, but that’s what you have to learn from. You don’t get good without getting your butt kicked and those are some tough schools.”