Tiger matmen roll over three opponents in dual action

The Mountain Home Tiger wrestlers picked up three more dual match wins last week as they prepared for this week's district tournament at Kuna.

Mtn. Home 63

Middleton 12

The Tigers won 12 of 14 matches in racking up a 63-12 win over the Middleton Vikings last Tuesday night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium in Mountain Home.

Winning by pins for the Tigers were T.J. Billinger (119 pounds), Ty Kleffner (135), Calvin Vivier (145), Tanner Carpenter (160) and Chris Knudson (171). Winning by forfeit were Devonte McClain (112) and Luke Loomis (189). Kaeo Doronio (130) won by technical fall (18-3). Kamron Spaulding (152) and Matt Ward (215) both won major decisions, and Erwin Ruiz (125) and Nico Pinque (140) won decisions.

Colby Lord, wrestling up at the heavyweight class (285), lost by pin, and the Tigers forfeited at 103 pounds.

Tigers 59

Kuna 16

The Tigers finally had their match at Kuna last Wednesday and Mountain Home won 11 of 14 matches to easily win, 59-16.

Picking up wins by pins were Kaeo Doronio (130), Calvin Vivier (145), Kamron Spaulding, Tanner Carpenter (160), Chris Knudson (171) and James Bailey (285). Devonte McClain (112) won by forfeit, T.J. Billinger (119) and Matt Ward (189) won major decisions, and Ty Kleffner (135) won by decision.

Nico Pinque (140) lost by major decision, Erwin Ruiz (125) lost by pin, and the Tigers forfeited at 103 pounds.

Tigers 49

Meridian 21

The Tigers traveled to Meridian last Thursday night where they won 10 of 14 matches with the Warriors to claim a 49-21 win.

Picking up pins for the Tigers were T.J. Billinger (119), Ty Kleffner (140), Kamron Spaulding (160) and Chris Knudson (171). Matt Ward (189) won by forfeit, John Deal (130), Kaeo Doronio (135), Cal Vivier (152) and Colby Lord (215) all won major decisions, and Nico Pinque (145) won by decision.

Erwin Ruiz (125) lost by decision, Devonte McClain (112) and Scott Hamman (285) lost by pins, and the Tigers forfeited at 103 pounds.

Mountain Home wrestling coach Lynn Knudson was pleased with the efforts on the mats.

"It was a great Senior Night on the mats Tuesday night against Middleton, and then Wednesday night at Kuna, and Thursday night at Meridian, it was both Kuna and Meridian's Senior Night and the kids did the things that they needed to do, and came out of the week with three wins, so it was a great effort by them."

Mountain Home sent their junior varsity wrestlers to Glenns Ferry for some matches against Glenns Ferry, Cascade and Cambridge on Friday.

Luke Anderson picked up two wins by pins for Mountain Home at 171 pounds. Devonte McClain (112), Jordan Mason (125), John Deal (130), Chris Vogl (135), Jacob Viola (160), Luke Loomis (189), Scott Hamman (189) and Tucker Martin (215) all won by pins. Cody Staebler (145) won a major decision, and Travis Goldsby (140) and Kevin Anderson (160) won decisions.

The District III 4A Wrestling Tournament is Thursday and Friday at Kuna. The Tigers fared well at the seeding meeting last Saturday, getting three number one seeds, three number two seeds, and two third and number four seeds. They had 15 seeded in the top six, and 19 in the top eight seeds.

"We went to the seeding meeting and things went pretty well for us, so we're looking forward to District," said Coach Knudson.

Earning number one seeds were Kaeo Doronio at 130 pounds, Calvin Vivier at 145 and Colby Lord at 189.

Number two seeds went to Ty Kleffner at 135, Nico Pinque at 140 and Chris Knudson at 171.

T.J. Billinger at 119 pounds and Tanner Carpenter at 160 earned number three seeds.

Kamron Spaulding (152) and Matt Ward (171) are seeded fourth in their weight classes. Chris Vogl (140) and James Bailey (215) erned number five seeds, and Erwin Ruiz (125), Tim Hazelbaker (152) and Luke Loomis (189) earned number six seeds.

Devonte McClain (112), John Deal (130) and Cody Staebler (145) have number seven seeds, Tommy Miller (135) is seeded eighth, Zach Pomerantz (119) and Jordan Mason (125) are nine seeds, Tucker Martin (215) is seeded at 10, and Jacob Viola (160) is seeded at 12.

Action gets under way at Kuna at 4 p.m. Thursday and resumes Friday at 1 p.m. The finals are scheduled to start at 7 p.m. Friday.