Wrestlers continue to dominate

The Mountain Home Tigers continued their strong start to the wrestling season, picking up dual wins over Borah and Middleton, and going 5-1 at the Bonneville Duals in Idaho Falls.

Mountain Home 64

Borah Lions 17

The Tigers improved to 8-0 in duals, downing the Borah Lions last Tuesday night at Borah. Mountain Home won 11 of the 14 matches, nine by pin.

Picking up pins for the Tigers were Matt Tennant (119 pounds), John Deal (130), Nico Pinque (135), Calvin Vivier (140), Kamron Spaulding (145), Kori Andrews (160), Chris Knudson (171), Matt Ward (189) and Tyson Sessions (215). Blake Pharis won the 285 pound match by forfeit, and Kaeo Doronio won a 15-4 major

decision at 125 pounds. Riley Smith lost by technical fall (19-4) at 103 pounds, and T.J. Billinger (112) and Robby Bergh (152) lost by pins.

Mountain Home 44

Middleton 18

The Tigers improved to 9-0 on the season, winning 44-18 at Middleton last Tuesday.

The Tigers led just 9-6 after the first five matches, but won seven of the last nine matches to pull away for the win.

Winning by pins for the Tigers was Kaeo Doronio at 119 pounds, Chris Knudson at 171, and Tyson Sessions at 215.

T.J. Billinger claimed a forfeit at 112 pounds, and Matt Tennant won by technical fall (17-0) at 125 pounds.

John Deal (130 pounds) won an 8-4 decision, Nico Pinque (135) won a 6-5 decision, Kori Andrews (160) won a 5-2 decision, and Matt Ward (189) won a 6-1 decision.

Kamron Spaulding (145) lost a tough 8-6 decision, Tanner Carpenter (152) lost a 9-4 decision. Blake Pharis (285) lost by pin, and the Tigers forfeited at 103 pounds.

"It started out as a pretty tough match for us," said Coach Knudson. "It seemed like they were very, very strong at a lot of their weight classes, and then as we got going, things started working our way a little bit better and we came away with a pretty good win after a slow start."

The Tigers wrestled at the Bonneville Duals in Idaho Falls over the weekend, going 5-1 to take second.

The Tigers beat Bonneville, 42-29, downed Skyline, 51-29, beat Rigby, 52-25, won over Hillcrest, 61-18, and beat Madison, 57-18.

Their only loss of the weekend came Friday, when they lost to a tough Idaho Falls team, 40-28.

Idaho Falls went 6-0 to win the Duals, Mountain Home was second. Post Falls finished third, Bonneville was fourth, Skyline, fifth, Rigby, sixth, Preston, seventh, Vallivue, eighth, Hillcrest, ninth, Madison, 10th, Sugar-Salem, 11th, and Bishop Kelly, 12th.

Three Tigers went 6-0 at the Bonneville meet. They were Nico Pinque (135 pounds), Chris Knudson (171) and Matt Ward (189).

Kaeo Doronio (119), Cal Vivier (140), Kamron Spaulding (145) and Kori Andrews (160) all went 5-1. Tyson Sessions (215) went 4-2, and Ty Kleffner (130) and Blake Pharis (285) went 3-3.

"We had a good first day and won our first two matches," said Coach Knudson. "Our third match of the day was against Idaho Falls, which we knew would be our toughest match. It was a good, close match all the way through, and we had some calls that didn't go our way.

"It was tied at 28-28 going into the final two matches, and we ended up getting pinned in those two and lost, 40-28. We had our opportunities to do a little better job, but did not execute.

"We came back the next day after that loss and ended up winning three in a row by pretty good margins, so I was real happy with the way the kids performed down there."

The Mountain Home Tigers junior varsity traveled to Columbia for a Junior Varsity Dual Tournament over the weekend and went 6-0 to win the tournament.

They opened against Vallivue, and won, 44-27. They then beat Nampa, 57-24, beat Skyview, 40-24, beat Middleton, 65-12, downed Mountain View, 45-24, and beat Eagle, 53-30 for the championship.

Four Tigers went unbeaten in the Columbia Tourney. John Deal went 6-0 at 130 pounds, Ryan Hammer went 6-0 at 152, Brandon Johnson went 6-0 at 160, and Colby Lord went 6-0 at 189 pounds.

Mountain Home also sent some wrestlers to a freshman-sophomore tourney at Capital over the weekend.

Team scores were not available, but six Mountain Home wrestlers placed. Josh Lindsay won the 171 pound weight class. Kevin Anderson took fourth at 160 pounds, Destry Royce was fifth at 152 pounds, Jacob Viola was fifth at 160 pounds, Travis Goldsby was sixth at 135 pounds, and Junior Ruiz was sixth at 152 pounds.

The Tigers host a tri-match today in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium.

Mountain Home will wrestle Capital starting at 4 p.m. That match will be followed by Capital and Weiser, and Mountain Home and Weiser will wrestle in the last match of the night.