Matmen continue to roll to victory

The Mountain Home Tigers picked up three dual match wins last week.

Mountain Home 54

Boise Braves 15

The Mountain Home Tigers picked up five pins, four decisions and two forfeits in winning 11 of 14 matches with the Boise Braves last Tuesday night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium.

Picking up pins for the Tigers against Boise were Brandon Stempfley at 103 pounds, Kyle Hickerson at 112,

David Wise at 119, Garrett Wells at 145 and Kole Spaulding at 171. Mike Ramsey won by forfeit at 130 pounds, as did Charles Davidson at 215.

A.J. Hutchison won a 9-5 decision at 125 pounds, James Greenfield won a 10-6 decision at 135 pounds, Chris Hathaway won a 9-7 decision at 140 pounds, and Kori Andrews won a 10-8 decision at 152 pounds.

Tyson Sessions dropped a tough 5-4 decision at 160 pounds, and Robert Weed lost the heavyweight match by pin, and the Tigers forfeited at 189 pounds.

Tiger wrestling coach Lynn Knudson enjoyed the win, but expected more from his wrestlers.

"I expected it to be a little bit better than that," said Knudson. "I'm not real happy with the way we wrestled. Not to come up with excuses, but we're a little bit beat-up, and also, that flu has hit us pretty hard, and you could see that, the way some of the kids wrestled tonight. Hopefully, we'll get over that."

Mountain Home 40

Emmett 25

The Tigers hosted the Emmett Huskies Wednesday night as part of a tri-match with Buhl. Mountain Home picked up five pins and three decisions in winning eight of the 14 matches.

Picking up pins for the Tigers were Mike Ramsey at 130 pounds, Chris Hathaway at 140, Garrett Wells at 145, Kole Spaulding at 171, and Robert Weed at heavyweight. David Wise remained unbeaten with a 11-0 major decision at 119 pounds, A.J. Hutchison won a 7-0 decision at 125 pounds, and Charles Davidson pulled off a 3-0 decision at 215 pounds.

Kori Andrews lost a tough double-overtime decision at 152 pounds, James Greenfield lost a tough 9-7 decision at 135, Kyle Hickerson suffered his first loss of the season, losing a 6-0 decision to defending 112-pound State Champion Preston Gentry, and Tyson Sessions lost a 10-0 major decision at 160 pounds.

The Tigers forfeited at 189 pounds.

Coach Knudson was pleased with the efforts against Emmett.

"It was one of those matches where you don't know how really good they are. People talk them up to you pretty tall, and thinking we might get busted up a little bit more in a few other matches, but as it turns out, some of our kids out there wrestling came up with pins instead of maybe just a decision, and that was big on our part, and we asked them to do that, and they did. It was good that the kids stepped up."

Mountain Home 78

Buhl 9

Facing a Buhl Indian team that forfeited six of the 14 weight classes, the Tigers rolled to an easy 78-9 non-conference win. Mountain Home lost just one of the eight matches they wrestled, winning seven by pins.

Brandon Stempfley (103 pounds), Daniel Doronio (112), A.J. Hutchison (125), Mike Ramsey (130), Jason Greenfield (135), Garrett Wells (145), and Brennen Lawson (152) all won by pins. David Wise (119 pounds), Chris Hathaway (140), Tyson Sessions (160), Charles Davidson (215) and Robert Weed (275) all won by forfeit.

Kole Spaulding dropped a tough 9-4 decision at 171 pounds, and both teams forfeited at 189 pounds.

"Buhl's down," said Coach Knudson after the Buhl match. "They've got some good groups coming up, but they're still a few years off. They've got a lot of kids gone and forfeited five or six matches, and it's tough for them to come here and compete, but they want to be competitive, and they are in a few weight classes. It reminds me of us about 10 years ago when we first started up, not having all the weight classes filled, but our guys wrestled well tonight, so we're happy with the win."

TIGERS PLACE 10TH AT TIGER-GRIZ TOURNEY

The Mountain Home Tigers came home from Idaho Falls with a 10th place tie at the Tiger-Griz Wrestling Tourney over the weekend.

Wasatch,Utah won the 32-team Tourney with 293 points. Eagle was second with 218. Box Elder, Utah was a distant third with 140.5 points. Green River, Wyo., came in fourth with 131, four points ahead of Campbell County, Wyoming. Snake River finished sixth with 111.5, followed by Idaho Falls with 109, Centennial was eighth with 106.5, Blackfoot next with 91.5, and Mountain Home tied with Skyline of Idaho Falls with 87 points for 10th. Kuna was 12th with 84, and Vallivue 13th with 74.5.

Mountain Home had four wrestlers make it to the quarter-finals, but only two ended up placing. David Wise improved to 27-0 on the season, winning the 119 pound weight class, and A.J. Hutchison finished 6th in the 125 pound weight class. Kyle Hickerson (112 pounds) and Chris Hathaway (140) won their first two matches to make it to the quarter-finals, but dropped their next two to be eliminated.

"It was a very tough tourney," said Tiger wrestling coach Lynn Knudson of the Tiger-Griz.

"There were 32 teams there, and just a tremendous amount of very good talent, and you can't let your guard down for a moment, or you're going to end up getting beat, and that happened to us a number of times, where we were ahead in the match and get into that third round and end up losing. I'm not real happy with the way we wrestled at all. I know we have a lot more potential.

Hopefully, this means that we haven't peaked yet, and come District and State, that's when we'll peak.

Hopefully, it was a good learning experience for us and we can step up from here."

The Tigers hosted Meridian in a dual match last night, and go to Bishop Kelly for a conference dual Thursday night.