Tiger wrestling season begins at Buck's Bags Boise Duals on Friday

The Mountain Home Tigers open their wrestling season this Friday and Saturday at the Buck's Bags Boise Duals.

The Tigers are coming off a fifth-place finish at state last year, and lost a number of wrestlers to graduation. Tiger wrestling coach Lynn Knudson indicated the numbers are down a bit this year, but he remains optimistic.

The Tigers' first home match of the season will be Dec. 17 against Columbia.

"It's a little bit shallow, but I'm pretty optimistic about how our program's going to go. Not quite as many wrestlers out as we'd like, but we've got some good returners and I'm looking forward to the challenge of getting these guys coached up and I think we're going to be okay."

The Tigers open this Friday and Saturday at the Boise Duals. Coach Knudson believes it will be a big test for them right off the bat.

"Our big test will be the Boise Duals on the 12th and 13th, that's our first match, and that's a big dual tournament for us. There will be 24 teams total there, and we're not going to see every one of them, but I'm asking to see all of the teams that we normally won't see and try to wrestle some of the tougher teams that hopefully improve how we're wrestling and get this team ready for the district tournament."

Coach Knudson expects a tough conference race, but hopes to have his Tigers ready for the challenge.

"I know Columbia always gets some good breaks, they had a couple kids that transferred in, one came out of Kuna High School, and they had a lot of returning kids on top of that, so they'll be tough. Beyond that I really don't know. All the rest of us lost a lot of kids last year, so it'll be interesting to see just how we stack up against some of those other teams."

The Tigers have their first home wrestling match of the season on Dec. 17 against Columbia.