The Palmer Ridge Bears were ungracious hosts Wednesday as they defeated Air Academy 51-20 for a wrestling victory.

After dropping the first match, the Bears reeled off nine straight wins, claiming 10 of the 14 weight classes.

Seven of those 10 wins came with bonus points for major decisions, technical falls or falls and two were forfeits.

The lone 3-point decision for the Bears was a 12-5 win by Adam Bryan at 160 pounds, one point shy of a major decision.

The win marked another step in the evolution of a rapidly developing program that started with just freshmen and sophomores four years ago.

“Our practices are pretty hard,” senior Antero Guy said. “We’ve lost a lot of guys because they can’t handle the practices, but it makes us mentally tough.

“Our coaches are great technicians too. They’re really amazing coaches. He makes sure we have the right amount of conditioning and still get the technique part in.”

Coach Alex Joseph and assistant Paul Gagich get involved with the Olympic Training Center as much as possible and get kids involved in freestyle wrestling and training year-round.

“It’s one thing to tell a kid to do something, but another to do it yourself,” Joseph said. “I don’t tell a kid to do something if I don’t do it myself. It helps when you’re telling them to do something if you know how if feels and what they’re going through.”

That approach is now proving itself on the mat.

The dominance started at 106 pounds with a 21-4 technical fall in the second period by freshman Rylan Thalhammer. At 126 pounds, older brother Tyler Thalhammer, ranked sixth in 4A by Tim Yount’s On the Mat Rankings, scored an 11-0 decision to give the Bears a 21-3 advantage. Pins by Tommy Edwards and Ryan Best followed at 132 and 138 before another pair of brothers wrapped up wins.

Erik Guy, ranked No. 13 at 138, moved up a weight class and captured a 13-1 decision over Dillon Dombaugh at 145. Antero Guy left his No. 2 ranking at 145 to score a 19-4 technical fall over Ricky Ray in the second period of the 152 bout.

Billy Farmer dropped to 182 and scored a pin to stake the Bears to a 51-9 lead.

The Kadets got did well in the upper weights. Caleb Cuneio, ranked sixth at 160, broke the Bears string with a pin at 170 pounds. Vince Gutierrez scored a pin in 2:25 over Eben Martin at 195 and Rip Price, ranked No. 2 at 195, moved up to 220 and pushed is record to 21-0 on the season with an 18-3 technical fall.

Photo by