Tiger matmen place seventh at tourney

The Mountain Home Tigers finished in a tie for seventh place at the Buhl Invitational Wrestling Tournament this past weekend.

Jerome won the tourney with 163.5 points. Twin Falls was second with 115, Spring Creek, Nev., was third with 114.5, Minico was fourth with 114, North Fremont finished fifth with 97, South Fremont was sixth with 94. Mountain Home and New Plymouth tied for seventh with 85 points. There were 23 teams competing at the two-day tournament.

Mountain Home had three wrestlers place in the tourney. Joe Gutierrez went 3-1 at 112 pounds and placed second. DeVonte McClain placed third at 119 pounds and went 4-1. D.J. Hale placed third at 130 pounds and went 5-1.

Other wrestlers for Mountain Home and their records at the tourney included: Cory Pinque, 2-2 at 125; Erwin Ruiz, 2-2 at 135; Ryan Goldsby, 2-2 at 140; Austin Clark, 1-2 at 145; Kevin Anderson, 1-2 at 160; Jon Ryan, 1-2 at 189, and Tim Hazelbaker, 0-2 at 171.

Tiger wrestling coach Lynn Knudson saw some good efforts by his guys over the weekend.

"We're seeing improvement a little bit at a time, and good things are happening still. We had some really outstanding wrestling by Joe Gutierrez down at Buhl. He ended up taking second (at 112 pounds), but did an excellent job all the way through to the championship match, and DeVonte McClain and D.J. Hale, an outstanding job by both of them."

The Tigers hosted Skyview for a conference dual last Thursday, beating the Hawks 42-29. Picking up wins by pins for Mountain Home were Cory Pinque at 125 pounds, D.J. Hale at 130, Erwin Ruiz at 135 and Tim Hazelbaker at 171. Ryan Goldsby (140) and Jeff Checketts (215) won by forfeit. Joe Gutierrez won a 6-3 decision at 112 pounds and Kevin Anderson won a 12-8 decision at 160 pounds.

The Tigers junior varsity squad wrestled at a JV tourney at Canyon Ridge in Twin Falls over the weekend and finished third. Tyler Rios took first at 125 pounds and Tomas Garza won at 140 pounds. Justin Johnson was second at 135 pounds and Juan Silva placed third at 130 pounds.

The Tigers wrestle a conference dual at Nampa tonight and travel to Rexburg this weekend for the Madison Tournament.