Wrestlers capture third at state

The Mountain Home Tigers finished third at the State 4A Wrestling Championships in Pocatello over the weekend.

With the memory of the send-off they received when they left Mountain Home the day before still fresh in their minds (the mayor and fire department lead them out of town), first-round action saw nine of the Tiger wrestlers win, and at the close of the first day of action, 14 of the 17 were still wrestling.

Five of the nine that won first round matches, also won their quarterfinal matches to advance to the semifinals.

Only one made the championship final, but the four that lost in the semifinals all came back to take third in their weight classes.

Minico won the 4A Championship, earning 225 points. Skyview, last year's state champion was second, with 150 points. Mountain Home earned 123.5 points for third. Pocatello was fourth, with 118.5, and Lakeland came in fifth, scoring 116 points. The rest of the 4A placers and scoring was (6) Preston, 107; (7) Hillcrest, 104; (8) Sandpoint, 99; (9) Blackfoot, 91.5; (10) Kuna, 80; (11) Bonneville, 76; (12) Caldwell 59; (13) Nampa, 57.5; (14) Madison, 46; (15) Rigby, 45; (16) Jerome, 39; (17)Bishop Kelly, 34; (18) Century, 32; (19)Burley, 25; (20) Vallivue, 22.5; (21)Emmett, 19; (22) Post Falls, 15; (23) Moscow, 1; (24) Wood River, 0.

Although hoping this would be the year for a state wrestling championship, Tiger wrestling coach Lynn Knudson was not disappointed with the third-place finish and efforts from his Tigers.

"As young as we are, I was just hoping to close with them (Minico) and, if we could have had a few more guys do a little better, we would have been right there with Minico, I feel. "It didn't quite turn out that way, but I'm still real happy with the way the kids performed and came out on top in a lot of places. I was really happy with their efforts."

Knudson was pleased with the way his four that lost in the semifinals all bounced back on Saturday to take third in their weight class.

"That's pretty hard to do sometimes when you've lost a match in the semis, but they came back and won twice to take third and that was great."

Calvin Vivier led the Tigers with a second-place finish at 135 pounds.

Daniel Doronio at 119, A.J. Hutchison at 135, James Greenfield at 145 and Kori Andrews at 160 pounds all finished third.

Kamron Spaulding finished fifth at 130 pounds.

In a look at how the Tiger wrestlers did, weight class by weight class, it went as follows:

103 pounds --T.J. Billinger lost his first match by pin to number-one seed Colton Nielson of Pocatello. The Tiger freshman stayed alive with a pin over Justin Rollison of Jerome, but lost by technical fall, 15-0, to Kyle Williams of Blackfoot to be eliminated from the tournament. He finished 1-2 at state.

Nick Best lost a 14-0 major decision to Kyle Williams of Blackfoot. The Tiger freshman won by pin over Dominic Pratt of Jerome, but lost a close 5-4 decision to Josh Stallings of Minico.

He finished 1-2 in the tournament.

112 pounds -- Kaeo Doronio lost a 4-2 decision to Nate Crane of Minico. The Tiger freshman bounced back to edge Matt Murin of Skyview, 4-3. He then lost by pin to Tristan Storrs of Lakeland. He finished 1-2 in the tournament.

119 pounds -- Daniel Doronio beat Alex Gonzales of Blackfoot, 11-5. The Tiger junior then faced Casey Steffani of Skyview in the quarterfinals and won by pin to advance to the semifinals against number-one seed Kevin Killoy of Sandpoint.

Doronio lost a 9-3 decision to Killoy, who went on to win the state championship.

Doronio then faced Dennis Anderson of Caldwell, and won a 9-3 decision, and then faced Dallen Broadhead of Madison. Broadhead was the number two-seed, and Doronio edged him 5-4 to claim third place, and go 4-1 in the state tournament.

130 pounds -- Kamron Spaulding opened the tournament against Jake Lords of Madison and lost a 12-1 major decision. The Tiger sophomore then faced Adam Boone of Bonneville and won a 17-3 major decision. He stayed alive with a 9-8 decision over Brandon DeLao of Kuna.

He then faced Jared Hendricks of Century, and won a 9-5 decision, which put him up against Jake Lords of Madison in the consolation semifinals. He lost to Lords, 8-5, but beat Anthony Weerheim of Preston by injury default to place fifth. Spaulding went 4-2 in the tournament.

Nico Pinque faced Brandon DeLao of Kuna in the first round and lost a 10-5 decision. The Tiger sophomore then faced Thomas Tiel of Bonneville and lost by pin, to go 0-2 at state.

135 pounds -- Calvin Vivier opened the tournament with a pin of Alex Thompson of Moscow. That put the Tiger sophomore against top-seeded and unbeaten Jake Thompson of Rigby in the quarterfinals.

Vivier won by injury default to advance to the semifinals against Joe Burbank of Preston. He won by a 16-1 technical fall to advance to the championship match against number-two seed Brandon Palaniuk of Lakeland. Palaniuk ended up breaking an arm late in the match, but hung on to beat Vivier, 14-3, for the championship. Vivier went 3-1 in the tournament.

A.J. Hutchison faced Bastin Thacker of Jerome in the first round and came away with a pin. The Tiger senior then faced Darrell Flores of Caldwell in the quarterfinals and won an 11-7 decision to advance to the semifinals against against number-two seed Brandon Palaniuk of Lakeland.

Hutchison lost an 8-6 decision to Palaniuk, and next faced Jered Hammond of Burley in the consolation semifinals. Hutchison won by pin over Hammond and beat Darrell Flores of Caldwell in a 16-7 major decision to claim third place. Hutchison went 4-1 in the tournament.

140 pounds -- Ty Kleffner opened with a 12-7 decision over Jon Smith of Minico. The Tiger sophomore then faced number-two seed Zach Horsley of Lakeland in the quarterfinals, and lost by technical fall, 19-3. He next faced Justin Welch of Rigby in the consolation bracket, and won by pin. That put him up against Tayson Beck of Skyview where he lost a 7-2 decision to finish 2-2 in the tournament.

145 pounds -- James Greenfield opened against number-two seed Kyle Meschko of Sandpoint and came away with a 13-9 decision. The Tiger senior then faced Terrence Johnson of Pocatello in the quarterfinals and won 5-2. That put him in the semifinals against Troy Vance of Hillcrest, where he lost 6-4. He then faced Kyle Meschko of Sandpoint again, this time in the consolation semifinals, and won a 10-8 decision. He then faced Nick Jensen of Preston and won a 6-2 decision to claim third place. Greenfield went 4-1 in the tournament.

152 pounds -- Zacq Hale faced Kyle Sargent of Blackfoot in his first match of the tournament and came away with an 18-9 major decision. That put the Tiger junior against Tyler Stevens of Skyview in the quarterfinals, where he lost a tough 11-10 decision. He then faced Bridger English in the consolation bracket and lost a 7-1 decision. He finished 1-2 in the tournament.

160 pounds -- Kori Andrews faced Chase Kelpin of Caldwell in the first round, and won a 3-2 decision. That put the Tiger junior against Scott Underdahl of Lakeland in the quarterfinals, and he got past him 6-5 to move to the semifinals against second-seeded Jake Forseberg of Skyview. He dropped a 4-1 decision to Forseberg, and then moved to the consolation semifinals against Keith Blanc of Jerome, winning 10-5. He then faced Scott Underdahl of Lakeland again, and won a 4-2 decision to claim third place. Andrews went 4-1 at state.

171 pounds -- Chris Knudson opened the tournament with a win by disqualification over Zachery Littlejohn of Blackfoot. That put the Tiger sophomore against number-two seed Austin Gorringe of Bishop Kelly in the quarterfinals, where he lost a 17-3 major decision. He then faced Jake Copeland of Emmett in the consolation round and lost a 6-1 decision. He finished 1-2 in the tournament.

Matt Ward opened against Jerod Morris of Sandpoint and lost an 11-6 decision. The Tiger sophomore won by pin over Craig Helms of Burley, and then faced James Boone of Bonneville, and lost by pin. He finished 1-2 at state.

189 pounds -- Tyson Sessions lost by pin to Joel Sandoval of Skyview. The Tiger junior, who has been injured much of the season, then dropped an 8-3 decision to Hiram Knapp of Preston to go out of the tournament 0-2.

215 pounds -- Charles Davison lost a 10-1 major decision to Sheldon Cramer of Sandpoint in his opening match. The Tiger senior then lost an 8-1 decision to Ben Donahue of Bishop Kelly to go out of the tournament 0-2.

275 pounds -- Blake Pharis opened the tournament with a pin over Caleb Zitterkopf of Preston. The Tiger junior faced second-seeded Beaux Clayton of Kuna in the quarterfinals and lost by pin.

He then faced Brent Bingham of Pocatello in the consolation bracket and lost a 3-1 decision. He went 1-2 in the tournament.

Overall, the Tiger wrestlers went 32-29 against their competition. Of the 17 Mountain Home wrestlers competing, 14 of them won at least one match, seven won at least two, and five won three or more.