Mtn Home wrestlers fall short in season debut

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

The Mountain Home Tigers came up short at Timberline, losing the season-opening wrestling match to the Wolves, 45-33, last Wednesday night at Timberline.

Picking up wins by pins for Mountain Home were DeVonte McClain at 119 lbs., DJ Hale at 130, and Statton Paris at 160 lbs.

Austin Lucas (103) and Cory Pinque (125) won by forfeit and Erwin Ruiz won an 8-6 decision at 135 lbs.

Ryan Goldsby lost a 9-8, overtime decision at 140 lbs., and Joe Gutierrez (112), Austin Clark (145), Jamz Wright (152), Kevin Anderson (171), Jon Ryan (189), Jeff Checketts (215) and Ty McRae (285) all lost by pins.

For the first effort of the season by his young squad, Mountain Home Tiger wrestling coach Lynn Knudson saw some bright spots.

"We've got a young team this year, and I'm real happy with how they're wrestling. Going into our first match a little bit green, not really ready, we faltered a little bit, winning some matches and then end up getting pinned, those kind of things are going to happen at the start of the year."

The Tigers got plenty of learning in at the Buck's Bags Boise Duals at Capital High over the weekend, where they won four of six matches.

They beat Minico 41-33, beat Boise 34-33, edged Twin Falls 39-38 and beat Vallivue 48-29. Their two losses were to Borah, 59-18, and Rocky Mountain, 43-26.

Mountain Home's DeVonte McClain went 6-0 at the tournament, wrestling at 119 lbs. Cory Pinque (125) and Kevin Anderson (171) both went 5-1, while Joe Gutierrez (112) and Ryan Goldsby (140) both finished at 4-2. Meanwhile, Austin Lucas (103), Erwin Ruiz (135), Jon Ryan (189) and Ty McRae (285) all went 3-3.

Meanwhile, Tyler Rios (130) went 2-4, Statton Paris (160) went 1-3, Austin Clark (145) went 1-5 and Jamz Wright (152) went 0-6.

Coach Knudson was pleased with the team's effort.

"We did very good, for using just one senior -- that's all we have on our squad right now. Freshmen, sophomores, a few juniors went up there and did a very good job up there, with improvement every match, and just seeing some very good things from a very young squad."

The Tigers host their first home dual match of the season Thursday night when they host Emmett on the mats in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium. This weekend they head over to Idaho Falls for the Bonneville Duals.

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: