Wrestlers grip win at Emmett, pace 8th in High Country Duals

The Mountain Home Tigers opened their conference dual wrestling match season with a win Thursday night, then headed to Idaho Falls where they finished eighth in the High Country Duals at Bonneville High School over the weekend.

Mountain Home 48, Emmett 30

Mountain Home opened their conference dual season with a 48-30 win over Emmett last Thursday night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium in Mountain Home.

The Tigers picked up five pins and four forfeits in the win.

Winning by pins were DeVonte McClain at 119 lbs., DJ Hale at 130, Ryan Goldsby at 140 and Statton Paris at 152.

Winning by forfeits for the Tigers were Joe Gutierrez at 112 lbs., Cory Pinque at 125, Jeff Checketts at 215 and Ty McRae at 285.

Erwin Ruiz lost a 5-3 decision at 135 lbs., Sergio Guadarrama dropped a 9-5 decision at 171 lbs.

Losing by pins were Austin Lucas at 103 lbs., Austin Clark at 145, Clive Lindsay at 160 and Jon Ryan at 189.

Mountain Home Tiger head wrestling coach Lynn Knudson was pleased with the win.

"That was a good night for us. We kind of started a little slow on the JV mat, but came back through and started getting things working right. It went real well. We had some exciting matches and the guys did what they needed to do."

High Country Duals results

Mountain Home ended up in eighth place at The High Country Duals at Bonneville, going 4-4 during the two-day competition.

Pocatello won the Duals Tourney, going unbeaten in eight matches. Skyline finished second, Vallivue third, American Falls fourth, Bonneville fifth, Rigby sixth, Idaho Falls seventh and Mountain Home eighth. There were 16 teams competing.

On Friday, the Tigers lost to Skyline 52-27, lost to Pocatello 54-33, beat Challis 48-33, and lost to Bon-neville 52-27.

On Saturday, the Tigers beat Hillcrest 42-33, beat Idaho Falls 48-36, beat Madison 57-22 and lost to Rigby 51-27.

Ryan Goldsby led the Tigers at the duals tourney, going 7-1 at 140 lbs. Austin Clark and Cory Pinque both went 5-1, Clark at 145, Pinque at 125. DeVonte McClain went 3-1 at 119, Joe Gutierrez went 4-2 at 112, DJ Hale went 5-3 at 130, Kevin Anderson went 4-4 at 160, Zach Pomerantz went 2-4 at 152, Jon Ryan and Erwin Ruiz both went 2-5, Ryan at 189, Ruiz at 135, Austin Lucas went 1-5 at 103, Sergio Guadarrama went 1-6 at 171, Ty McRae went 0-6 at 285 and Jeff Checketts went 0-7 at 215.

Coach Knudson was pleased with the efforts by his guys at the tourney.

"I feel real good about spending the time with the guys, and them getting a little more sound each and every time we wrestle. We're having our ups and downs, but overall, I'm seeing a lot of improvement. It looks real good for the future."

The Mountain Home Tiger JV squad wrestled at the Glenns Ferry duals on Saturday, placing third there, behind Garden Valley and Melba. The Tigers beat Owyhee, Nev., Glenns Ferry and Raft River-Oakley, and lost to Garden Valley and Melba.

Tiger wrestler Perry Savage went undefeated at the Glenns Ferry meet, placing first. Nick Cruz at 119, Tyler Rios at 130 and Juan Silva at 135 all finished second in their weight classes.