Mederios wins state title; wrestling team finishes fifth

The Mountain Home Tigers placed fifth at the 4A State Wrestling Tournament over the weekend at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa.

The Tigers had 15 wrestlers compete, and six of them placed, including Pierce Mederios who won the 98-pound weight class.

Josh Deal finished fourth at 195 pounds, Tanner Sessions took home a fifth-place medal at 145 pounds, and sixth-place medals went to Jacob Lucas (106), Tyler Heath (132) and Jacob Ryan (170).

For Mederios, it completed an unbeaten season as he went 46-0 on the year.

"It feels really good," said Pierce after the match. "In a big tournament like this, the goal is to advance to the next round, and this just happened to be the last one," referring to his championship win.

Pierce went undefeated during his junior high years and added another undefeated season as a freshman at the high school level.

"It feels really good, but every match is different. Next year, I'll just look at every match is different the same way."

Tiger wrestling Coach Lynn Knudson was happy for Pierce and his tremendous season and career.

"Unbelievable! A perfect junior high season -- three district championships there, and starting out his first year in the high school season with a 46-0 record and a state championship on top of that. No pressure here, but hopefully Mountain Home's first four-time state champion."

Coach Knudson was pleased with the team's fifth-place effort at state.

"Not a bad weekend at all. We could have come out and wrestled a little bit better as usual, but it went well. We ended up with five in today's matches, plus a champion, so it's not bad, and when we have all six of them that medaled returning to our team next year, that's a really good thing and a really big thing."

Coach Knudson is excited about the future of Tiger wrestling.

"It looks really good and we have a lot of kids in the room still. We ended up the season with about 40 still on our team, so it looks really good for the future and, hopefully, we can come back and really give the state tournament a run for its money next year."

Here are the results of the Mountain Home Tiger wrestlers at the state wrestling tourney by weight class.

98 POUNDS

PIERCE MEDERIOS

The Tiger freshman opened the tourney with a pin over Tanner Marley of Bonneville.

He beat Cole Trautner of Blackfoot 8-2 in the quarterfinals. Next came an exciting 3-1 Sudden Victory over Dante Carreno of Caldwell to make the championship match.

He then beat Ty Root of Pocatello 3-0 for the championship, completing an unbeaten 46-0 season.

HUNTER McCLUSKEY

The Tiger freshman opened against Hunter Roubidoux of Pocatello and lost by pin.

He then pinned Dustin Mansil of Moscow. He lost a 6-2 decision to Cole Trautner of Blackfoot to end the tournament 1-2 and finish 15-5 overall on the season.

106 POUNDS

JACOB LUCAS

The Tiger sophomore opened the tourney against Marcus Menefee of Blackfoot and won an 8-4 decision.

He then faced Kade Smith of Pocatello and lost by pin. He won a 7-5 Sudden Victory over Bryan Edelblute of Lakeland and stayed alive with a pin over Blake Gilchrist of Minico before losing by pin to Adam Compos of Columbia.

That put him in the fifth-place match against Brendan Runnels of Caldwell where he lost a tough 4-3 decision to finish sixth.

He went go 3-3 in the tourney and 20-16 overall.

SETH DOLAN

The Tiger junior opened the tourney with a pin against Nick Evans of Jerome.

He then lost by pin to Brandon Gonzalez of Caldwell and was eliminated from the ttourney when he was pinned by Brendan Runnels of Caldwell.

He went 1-2 in the tourney to finish 16-11 overall.

120 POUNDS

DILLON PARK

The Tiger freshman opened the tourney against Steven Dopp of Pocatello and lost by technical fall (19-2).

He stayed alive in the tourney by pinning Christian Brandt of Lakeland but was eliminated with a 10-1 major decision loss to Juan Sanchez of Columbia.

Dillon went 1-2 in the tourney to finish 10-19 overall.

132 POUNDS

TYLER HEATH

The Tiger junior opened the tourney by pinning Kyle McClure of Canyon Ridge and pinned Adrian Adame of Caldwell in the quarter-finals.

He lost by technical fall (18-3) to Michael Cook of Kuna in the semi-finals, and was was pinned by Taggart Andeson of Rigby.

He faced David Demayola for fifth place, losing a 9-1 major decision to finish sixth.

Tyler went 2-3 in the tourney to finish 32-17 overall.

145 POUNDS

TANNER SESSIONS

The Tiger junior opened the tourney with a pin of Eric Olson of Rigby and won an 11-6 decision over Lewis Dunton of Sandpoint.

He lost a tough 6-5 decision in the semi-finals to Donivan Banks of Bonneville and then lost a 7-3 decision to Dusty Jones of Kuna.

He beat Lewis Dunton of Sandpoint again, this time 8-4, for fifth place, to finish 3-2 in the tourney and 39-11 overall.

160 POUNDS

CHARLIE SHOEMAKER

The Tiger senior opened against Casey Randles of Sandpoint and lost a 15-1 major decision.

He beat Jake Anderson of Rigby in a 6-2 decision and pinned Jared Sargent of Blackfoot.

He then lost by pin to Dillon Bird of Bonneville to finish 2-2 in the tourney and 23-18 overall.

170 POUNDS

JAKE RYAN

The Tiger junior opened the tourney by getting pinned by Ryker Fenstermaker of Burley.

He then won a 5-4 decision over Cade Armstrong of Moscow.

He followed that by pinning Mark Greene of Bishop Kelly and winning a 5-2 decision over Will Jenkins of Bonneville.

He then lost a 10-5 decision to Chris Lamkins of Caldwell, which put him in the fifth-place match.

He lost by pin to Brayden Shell of Kuna to finish sixth.

He finished 3-4 in the tournament and 32-22 overall.

182 POUNDS

TAYLOR OGAARD

The Tiger sophomore opened the tourney with a pin over Ricardo Marcos of Blackfoot.

He lost in the quarter-finals by pin to Jordan Nolan of Kuna and was eliminated from the tourney when AJ Elrod of Pocatello pinned him.

He went 1-2 in the tourney to finish the season 22-14.

BLAKE SPAGNOLO

The Tiger senior opened the tourney losing by pin to Zachary Argyle of Jerome and lost a tough 5-4 decision to Brendan Belnap of Twin Falls to be eliminated from the tourney.

Blake ended the season 18-8.

195 POUNDS

JOSH DEAL

The Tiger junior opened the tourney with a 6-5 Ultimate Tie Breaker win over Brandon Contreres of Bonneville.

He then pinned Wyatt Azevedo of Columbia before losing a 7-6 Tie Breaker (TB) to Colton Kesling of Kuna in the semi-finals.

He bounced back with a consolation semi-final win by pin over Travis Osterhout of Burley, putting him in the third-place match.

He then faced Wyatt Azevedo of Columbia again, and this time came up short in a 4-2 decision to finish fourth.

He went 3-2 in the tourney and finished 26-5 overall.

220 POUNDS

SOLOMON CHUNG-HEE

The Tiger senior took just 16 seconds to pin his opening opponent Zack Rodriguez of Blackfoot.

He then lost a tough 5-4 decision to Zachary Hall of Emmett.

He lost a tough 3-1 decision to Conor Shepherd of Lakeland to be eliminated from the tourney.

Solomon went 1-2 to finish 35-7 overall.

DALLIN DEARING

The Tiger junior opened the tourney against Carrick Smith of Bonneville and lost a 7-4 decision. Conor Shepherd of Lakeland beat him in a 7-3 decision to put him out of the tourney.

Dallin finished 22-13 overall.

285 POUNDS

JOSE ORTIZ

The Tiger freshman opened against Nolan Fay of Pocatello and won by pin.

He then lost by pin to JC English of Kuna and was eliminated from the tourney by losing a 6-1 decision to Lucio Carrillo of Jerome.

José went 1-2 in the tourney to finish 23-5 overall.