Wrestlers place at district tourney

The Mountain Home Tigers came away with a third-place finish Friday at the District III 4A Wrestling Tournament at Bishop Kelly.

The Tigers had a district champ, a district runner-up, four third-place finishers, three fourths, three fifths, three sixths and an at-large qualification. That totals 16 wrestlers that will advance on to this week's State Wrestling Tournament at The Ford Idaho Center in Nampa.

Pierce Mederios maintained his unbeaten season, picking up two points late in the third round to win a 7-5 decision to capture the district 98-pound weight class championship.

Josh Deal made it to the championship match at 195 pounds, where he lost a 3-1 decision to finish second.

Third-place medals went to Tyler Heath at 132 pounds, Tanner Sessions at 145, Solomon Chung-Hee at 220 and Jose Ortiz at 285.

Earning fourth-place efforts were Hunter McCluskey at 98 pounds, Charlie Shoemaker at 160 and Dallin Dearing at 220.

Fifth-place went to Jacob Lucas at 106 pounds, Jacob Ryan at 170 and Taylor Ogaard at 182.

Sixth-place went to Seth Dolan at 106 pounds, Dillon Park at 120 and Blake Spagnolo at 182.

Jordan Pendleton finished seventh at district at 138 pounds, qualifying for state with an at-large berth.

"I'm very pleased," said Tigers wrestling coach Lynn Knudson after the tourney. "I'm really excited about how the team kind of pulled together and were able to hold on to third.

"We weren't in third to start off the day today, so it was nice seeing us pick up some key wins," he added. "All we've got to do now is get things together for state, with practice starting Monday, and just improve on some of the little key things that we're still missing out on, and hopefully come out of there with at least third or fourth.

"We're looking forward to seeing some of our kids maybe placing a little bit higher at the state tournament. I'm very pleased with our effort here. I think we stepped it up well, and did what we expected of them," the coach said.

The State Wrestling Tournament begins Thursday, Feb. 27, and runs through Saturday at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa.