Air Force Academy

LAS VEGAS, NV—Air Force’s boxing team is tied for the team lead after the first night of Western Regional boxing competition on UNLV’s campus.  The Falcons scored 24 team points to share the lead with host school UNLV Friday, March 23.

Four Falcon boxers won their bouts Friday while four others suffered defeat. C3C Ulysses Linares, fighting in the 147-pound division, won a decision over Nevada’s Shaw Ebrahimi. The Falcons’ Clell Knight won his 156-pound bout over UNLV’s Dave Wengell. The referee stopped the bout in the third round as Knight completely dominated Wengell.

In the 165-pound weight class, Joe Harding advanced to the seminfinals by defeating Santa Clara’s Justin Pietrie on Thursday and UNLV’s Burn Minjares on Friday.  In the heavyweight division, Lee Poage defeated Cal-Berkley’s Lee Paotamson.

C4C  Doug Spear suffered a cut on the bridge of his nose which resulted in the referee stopping the contest and awarding the victory to UNLV’s Linden Manlapua in the 112-pound division. UNLV’s Lyle Nixon decisioned C1C Chris Geisel in the 132-pound division. Air Force’s C1C Gerry Sanchez lost a 3-2 split decision to Cal-Berkely’s Gene Kim in a 139-pound bout.

“The competition in this Western Regional is tough,’ said Falcon boxing coach  Eddie Weichers, Jr.  “We have Joel Rivera going in the 119 pound division on Friday and Dustin Brown, the defending national champion, going in the 195-pound division.  We need both to come away with victories.”

Following Air Force and UNLV in the team standings is Nevada with 12 points, Cal-Berekley with 6, San Jose State with 3 and Santa Clara with 1.  The competition concludes Saturday.