Tiger wrestlers lose conference opener

The young Mountain Home Tigers wrestling squad has some work ahead of them this season.

Wednesday night's conference dual opener at home against Columbia gave them a glimpse of where they need to be if they want to be wrestling at state this year. The Columbia Wildcats, fresh from winning the Boise Duals Tournament, downed the Tigers 59-15 in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium.

The match started at the 130-pound weight class, and for quite a while it looked like the only points the Tigers were going to get were the six points Kaeo Doronio earned on his forfeit win at 135 pounds. The Tigers lost five matches by pin and forfeited three weights, and were down, 55-6, before Joe Gutierrez sparked the home crowd with a win by pin at 112 pounds. T.J. Billinger followed that up with a 10-4 decision over his 119-pound opponent.

Those were the only matches Mountain Home won.

Tommy Miller lost a tough 12-9 decision in the closing seconds at 130 pounds.

Ryan Goldsby (140 pounds) and Erwin Ruiz (125) lost major decisions, and Cory Staebler (145), Travis Goldsby (152), Tim Hazelbaker (160), Michael Heinen (171) and James Bailey (285) all lost by pins.

The Tigers forfeited at 103, 189 and 215 pounds.

Tiger head wrestling coach Lynn Knudson was disappointed with the number of pins they gave up, but saw some positives.

"Columbia is definitely a good team, and it was a good match. I thought we fought really hard -- I don't like giving up pins -- but we had a couple good wins in there.

"It was just a way for us to measure ourselves, and that's what we need to do. We're young and we're going to get beat up a little bit, and Columbia is probably one of if not the toughest teams in the state. Had we not given up so many pins, I think it would have been a little better, but we battled, and I'm proud of how the kids wrestled."

The Tigers traveled over to Idaho Falls Friday and Saturday for the Bonneville Duals Wrestling Tournament. The Tigers went 1-3 on Friday, but went 3-1 on Saturday to finish 4-4 for the tourney. They finished sixth out of the 16 teams wrestling.

The Tigers opened Friday with a 37-32 win over Skyline, lost to Pocatello 58-21, lost to Challis 54-27, and lost to Bonneville 54-22.

On Saturday, the Tigers beat Hillcrest 42-27, lost to Idaho Falls,51-15, beat Madison 42-21, and beat Rigby 45-36.

Kaeo Doronio had a great tournament, going 8-0, with seven pins in the 125-pound weight class. Tommy Miller went 7-1, with three pins at 130 pounds. DeVonte McClain went 6-2, with four pins wrestling at 119 pounds (he wrestled one match at 112 pounds).

Joe Gutierrez went 5-2 at 112 pounds, with one pin. Tim Hazelbaker went 5-3 at 160 pounds, with four pins. Michael Heinen and Ryan Goldsby both went 4-4, Heinen wrestling at 171 where he had four pins, Goldsby at 135 where he had two pins. Travis Goldsby and James Bailey both went 3-5 and had three pins, Goldsby, at 152 and Bailey at 285.

Cody Staebler and Austin Clark both went 2-6, with two pins, Staebler at 140 pounds and Clark at 145.

Coach Knudson was pleased with their efforts at the Bonneville Duals, especially their efforts on Saturday.

"We started the first day off with a 1-3 record, and came back out the next day and the kids really wrestled well, so we turned it on that second day. It was really good what we were able to do (condering the team was) giving up three or four weight classes each dual, and still come out the way we did, so I'm really, really happy the way things turned out. Some of the kids really stepped up."

The Tigers return to action on Jan. 7 at Emmett, and go to the Buhl Invitational Jan. 9-10.