Wrestlers regroup after loss to Nampa

The Mountain Home Tiger wrestling squad dropped a conference dual match at Nampa, but had a good weekend outing in Idaho Falls at the Bonneville Duals.

At Nampa Thursday night, the Tigers won six matches and lost nine, falling 49-28.

Picking up wins by pin for the Tigers were Josh Saporta at 113 pounds, Levi Abrahamson at 138, and Tanner Sessions at 145.

Jacob Ryan won a 5-3 decision at 160 pounds, Josh Deal won a 15-6 major decision at 195, and Solomon Chung-Hee won an 11-0 major decision at 220 pounds.

Aerial Groene lost a 5-3 decision at 106 pounds and Tyler McCall lost a 13-4 major decision at 152.

Jacob Lucas (98 pounds), Bobby Dominquez (132), Blake Spagnolo (170), Taylor Ogaard (182) and Jose Ortiz (285) all lost by pins, and the Tigers forfeited at 120 and 126 pounds.

"We went into that match with a couple kids out of our lineup with injuries, but kids filled in and I thought we wrestled pretty well," said Tiger wrestling coach Lynn Knudson.

"We gave up some pins in a few cases, which doesn't ever help us, and we ended up losing the dual, but I saw improvement, so that's real good."

The Tigers went 6-3 at the Bonneville Duals in Idaho Falls over the weekend, finishing in fourth place in the team standings.

They opened the tourney Friday by beating Minico 45-36, losing to Pocatello 46-39, and to Bonneville 54-27, before ending the day with a 60-27 win over Hillcrest.

On Saturday, the Tigers opened with a 48-31 win over Idaho Falls, beat Madison 57-22, beat Rigby 47-35, beat Skyline 48-40 and lost to Blackfoot 69-18.

Solomon Chung-Hee went 9-0 in the 285-pound weight class at the Bonneville Duals.

Levi Abrahamson (138) and Josh Deal (195) both went 8-1, Aerial Groene (106) and Tanner Sessions (138) both went 7-2.

Jacob Lucas (98), Josh Saporta (120) and Blake Spagnolo went 5-4. Tyler McCall (152) and Taylor Ogaard (182) both went 4-5.

Bobby Dominguez (132) went 3-6, Seth Dolan (113) went 2-4, Preston Hyde (220) went 2-6, Jacob Ryan (160) went 2-7 and Nick Shoemaker (136) went 1-8.

"We had a number of our kids not only win matches, but also found out what it's like to really have to dig down deep and gut-check and see how well they could do, wrestling nine matches in two days," said Coach Knudson.

"It was a good experience for them, and I think it will help us a lot down the road."

The Tigers wrestled Timberline and Twin Falls at Timberline in Boise on Tuesday. They have their first home match at 5 p.m. this Friday in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium against Jerome.