Wrestling team places during Districts

The Mountain Home Tiger wrestling squad finished in seventh place in the team standings at the District III 4A Wrestling Tourney at Kuna. There will be seven Mountain Home wrestlers making the trip to Pocatello this week for the Idaho State Wrestling Championships in Holt Arena.

Columbia won the district meet, amassing 437 points to best host Kuna's 429. Nampa was a distant third with 326, Caldwell fourth with 246, Middleton fifth at 132.5, Skyview sixth at 131, Mountain Home seventh with 129.5, Emmett eighth at 71, and Bishop Kelly ninth with 36 points.

Tanner Sessions was the Tigers highest placer, finishing in third at 145 pounds.

Brett Stempfly finished fourth at 145 pounds. Jacob Lucas (98), Aerial Groene (106) and Josh Saporta (113) finished fifth.

Josh Deal (195) and Dallin Dearing (285) also qualified for state with their sixth-place finishes.

Just missing qualifying were David Welle (98), Bobby Dominguez (126) and Jacob Ryan (160), who all placed seventh. Eighth-place finishers were Abraham Salas (152), Preston Hyde (195) and Andrew Westhart (220).

The top six placers qualified for state, which is this Friday and Saturday.

Tiger wrestling coach Lynn Knudson is optimistic his seven will do well at state.

"We're always looking for more (state qualifiers), but those seven are the ones that made it out of district, and it was a really tough district tournament.

"We were going through our list, and I think we have 14 of the number one seeds in the state, so it was a tough district tournament for us, but, you know, with what we have going, I feel good about it, and I think they can do some good things, even though -- I'm at the seeding meeting today (Sunday) -- we're probably not going to have anybody seeded in the top six, but it's just a matter of us going out and wrestling and getting the job done, because I know that we are in the top six in almost every one of those weight classes, and it's just a matter of us stepping up and proving it.

"I feel good about the kids we are taking to the state tournament."