Discovery Canyon’s membership was expected to change the hierarchy of the 4A Metro League this season. If there were any lingering doubters, they were silenced Friday night as the Thunder rolled to the title with a 59-11 victory over host and fellow newcomer Vista Ridge.

The Thunder, ranked No. 5 in Tim Yount’s On The Mat Rankings, won 11 of 14 matches, including a string of nine straight after losing the first two bouts to put the match well out of reach. The Thunder, which moved up from 3A, won six matches by pin.

After a 4-2 decision by freshman heavyweight Jackson Spalding put Discovery Canyon on the scoreboard, the Thunder dominated the lower and middle weights. Junior Bryce Oberg started it off with a pin at 103-pounds. Oberg, ranked 10th, attacked Brandon Poulos early, opening up a 10-0 lead before sticking him midway through the third period.

“Once we got to the smaller weights we knew were going to come back,” Oberg said. “We needed to get that momentum going.”

Second-ranked AJ Rees, a sophomore, put on a clinic at 112, scoring six takedowns against senior Dylan Hawthorne (No. 12) on the way to a 16-6 major decision. The scrappy Hawthorne scored a reversal after Rees’ first takedown, but Rees escaped and was too quick for Hawthorne to keep up with. On three of his takedowns, Rees simply reached down from a standing position, grabbed Hawthorne by the ankle and lifted his leg in the air to gain control and get him to the mat.

Steve Turner (No. 9) led 8-0 before pinning Austin Mildbrandt at 119. Following forfeitures at 125 and 130, the Thunder got three more pins from seniors Jeff Brown (135, No. 7) and Nick Adams (140, No. 3) and junior Garrett Adams (145, No. 6), opening up a 49-7 lead.

“We just have a lot of depth (at the lower weights),” Nick Adams said. “We build off of each other. If one guy learns something new or tries something different, everyone else learns that move or that technique. It just helps all the guys around us be successful.”

For Adams, the school’s first state champion, the league title was just another brick in the foundation of the 4-year-old program.

“It’s just like we’ve always said, ‘we’re starting that winning tradition,’” Adams said. “We’re starting the expectation that Discovery Canyon is going to be a wrestling powerhouse.”

The Wolves wins came from No. 8 Brandon Clang with a 12-6 decision at 189 followed by No. 6 Quinton Riley’s 13-3 major decision at 215 – the first two matches. Twelfth ranked Austin Brown broke the Thunders’ win streak with an 8-0 decision over Brandon Sperle at 152, but the Wolves were wrestling for individual pride at that point.

A tough night on the mat for the Wolves didn’t hide the fact that the three year old program is heading in the right direction, if not as quickly as the Thunder.

“It’s nice to get here, but it would have been nice to perform a little better,” Wolves coach Ron Clang said. “This is where you want to be as a team and it says a little about our program. We’re doing some of the right things.”

Discovery Canyon’s Nick Adams pins Vista Ridge’s Jake Hawthorne at 140 pounds. The Thunder won six matches by pin on the way to capturing the 4A Metro title. Photo by KIRK SPEER, SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE