Matmen open season with dual win, tourney title

It was a good opening week of wrestling for the Mountain Home Tigers, who, besides opening their dual season with a win at home against Columbia, swept through the Boise Valley Duals to take the championship.

Mountain Home 47

Columbia 21

The Mountain Home Tigers went on a 43-0 run to overcome a 15-4 deficit and beat the Columbia Wildcats 47-21 in their season opening dual wrestling match last Thursday night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium.

The Tigers picked up three wins by pin and two forfeits, winning nine of the 14 matches.

Winning by pins were Kamron Spaulding at 145 pounds, Matt Ward at 171 and Tyson Sessions at 215 pounds.

Chris Knudson (189 pounds) and Blake Pharis (heavyweight) both won by forfeit.

Kaeo Doronio (119) and Calvin Vivier (140) both won major decisions, Doronio, 16-2, and Vivier, 13-5, and Nico Pinque (135), Tanner Carpenter (152) and Kori Andrews won by decisions.

Tommy Miller (125) lost a 12-7 decision, and Ryley Smith (103), T.J. Billinger (112), and John Deal (130) lost by pins.

Tiger wrestling coach Lynn Knudson was pleased with their first effort of the season.

"We expected to do well against them. They're a little bit young, being a new school coming on board in Nampa. I didn't think we would beat a couple of their kids -- I thought our kids could compete with them -- and we ended up beating some of their better kids that maybe have been placing in front of us in some of the district tournaments over their past couple of years, so I was really impressed.

"Calvin Vivier beat a good kid.

"We saw a lot of good wrestling from Tyson Sessions, he's really on fire right now, he looks really really sharp, and Tanner Carpenter, I just can't say enough about him stepping up and filling a spot.

We have some young ones down low, and then some more experienced ones throughout the lineup. I felt really good about how we wrestled tonight, being the first night -- sometimes that doesn't always work out that way. I'm pretty excited about how things went and we'll tune up a little bit and have a great season."

The Tigers then went to the Boise Valley Duals on Friday and Saturday at Capital High School in Boise, sweeping through the competition for the championship.

The Tigers opened Friday with a 62-15 win over Homedale, and beat Boise, 55-25. On Saturday the Tigers beat Hillcrest, 58-18, Caldwell, 38-33, and Mountain View, 44-35.

That put the Tigers at 5-0 in the duals, along with Nampa, and the two then met for the championship, with Mountain Home winning 57-18, Nampa's only wins coming on forfeits.

Five Mountain Home wrestlers went unbeaten in the two-day competition -- Kaeo Doronio at 119 pounds, Nico Pinque at 135, Calvin Vivier at 140, Chris Knudson at 171, and Tyson Sessions at 215 pounds.

Three Tigers went 5-1 -- Kamron Spaulding at 145 pounds, Tanner Carpenter at 153, and Matt Ward at 189.

Kori Andrews and Blake Pharis both went 4-2, Andrews at 160 pounds, Pharis at heavyweight.

Coach Knudson was extremely pleased with the efforts of his wrestlers at the two-day tourney.

"It was really something the way the kids came out and wrestled. I was wondering if Friday was a fluke when they came out and started beating teams so badly, but then they continued it on Saturday. The Caldwell match was a little bit closer, but really good things went our way and also our guys just came out there ready to wrestle. I know they all wanted to win a tournament -- it's been a long time since we won a tournament -- and their focus was definitely on wrestling."

Lewiston beat Mountain View for third place, Kuna beat Caldwell for fifth, Capital beat Skyline for seventh, Columbia beat Borah for ninth, and Jerome beat Hillcrest for 11th place.

The Tigers have a busy week of wrestling this week. They were at Borah for a dual last (Tuesday) night, go to Middleton for a conference dual tomorrow (Thursday), and then go to Bonneville High School in Idaho Falls for the Bonneville Duals on Friday and Saturday.

The JV wrestlers will go to the Caldwell Invitational this weekend, and the Tiger freshmen and sophomores will be at a tourney at Capital this weekend.