Mtn Home wrestlers pick up more wins, tie at Minico

The Mountain Home Tiger wrestlers picked up a conference dual win and tied for 14th at the Minico Tournament over the weekend.

Mountain Home 56

Bishop Kelly 19

The Mountain Home Tigers celebrated Senior Night with a 56-19 conference dual win over the Bishop Kelly Knights last Thursday night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium.

The Tiger wrestling squad picked up 10 wins on the night during the lop-sided victory.

Winning by pins were Tyler Rios in the 135-pound weight class, Justin Johnson at 152, Jon Ryan at 189 and Jeff Checketts at 215. Picking up wins by forfeit were Jaime Ibarra at 103 pounds, Austin Lucas at 119, Devonte McClain at 125 and Ryan Goldsby at 140.

Winning by major decisions were Cory Pinque at 130 pounds (15-4) and Austin Clark at 145 (13-2).

Austin Lisonbee lost a 9-6 decision at 112 pounds. Sergio Guadarrama dropped a 12-4 major decision at 171 pounds. Mark Dobson lost by pin at 160 and the Tigers forfeited at 285.

Tiger wrestling coach Lynn Knudson was pleased with the Senior Night crowd and the good effort by his wrestlers against Bishop Kelly.

"We had a great turnout for Senior Night and the kids were really up for it. It was nice to see them come out and wrestle the way they did. It's nice to see them progressing, so I'm real happy with the way that turned out."

The Mountain Home Tigers traveled to Minico High School over the weekend to participate at the Red Halverson Memorial Wrestling Tournament where they ended up tied for 14th with Canyon Ridge. Centennial High School went on to win the tournament with 226 points.

With wrestlers representing 20 teams competing at the event, Mountain Home had two wrestlers place at the Halverson tournament.

Devonte McClain finished fifth at 125 pounds while Cory Pinque finished in sixth place.

"It was a real tough tournament, probably a little bit tougher even than what we'll see at state," said Coach Knudson regarding his team's efforts at the Minico tournament. "We had some wins in some spots -- we didn't have everybody place -- but again, it's all about improvement, and hopefully getting them ready for district and then state."

Mountain Home sent some wrestlers to a junior varsity tournament at Burley. Mountain Home finished sixth out of 18 teams competing.

Austin Lisonbee won the 112-pound weight class. Justin Johnson finished third at 152 pounds and Jeff Checketts finished fourth at 215 pounds.

The Tigers have a home match against Columbia Thursday night. Coach Knudson expects a tough match from the defending 4A state champs.

"They're going to be very tough, but it will give us a good way to measure ourselves," the coach said. "I'm looking forward to it just to see how we can compete with them and wrestle some tough matches."

The Columbia match is set for a 7:30 p.m. start Thursday in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium.