Tiger wrestlers compete at Nampa, Buhl tournament

The Mountain Home Tiger wrestlers dropped a conference dual match to Nampa last Wednesday night at home, and then went to the 37th annual Buhl Invitational Wrestling Tournament over the weekend, where they finished 17th out of 28 teams competing.

Nampa 48, Mountain Home 29

Mountain Home returned to action in the new year last Wednesday night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium, where they came up short to the Nampa Bulldogs, 48-29.

For a while, it was either pin or be pinned, as each team registered four pins. Picking up pins for the Tigers were Tyler Rios at 135 pounds, Austin Clark at 152, Justin Johnson at 160 and Sergio Guadarrama at 171.

Ryan Goldsby picked up Mountain Home's other points with a technical fall (19-4) at 140 pounds.

Austin Lisonbee dropped a 7-1 decision at 112 pounds and Cory Pinque suffered his first loss of the season, losing a 6-1 decision at 130 pounds.

Losing by pins were Jaime Ibarra (103 pounds), Austin Lucas (119), Jon Ryan (215), and Ty McRae (285). The Tigers also forfeited at 125 pounds, 145 pounds and 189 pounds.

Mountain Home Tiger head wrestling coach Lynn Knudson saw some good things come from the match, but also had some disappointments.

"With our Christmas break, we're coming off guys not showing up for practice (during the break), so that's how we wrestled. They had lots of excuses over the holidays and it showed tonight, because there were lots of opportunities.

"We picked up some good wins, with Justin Johnson coming through with a good win there, Jon Ryan almost getting it, and Austin Clark coming through with that big pin.

"I think we could have done so much better against Nampa. They're a pretty solid team, but we had our opportunities and we didn't take advantage of those opportunities over the break and we came up with a loss there.

"Some of the kids came up with good wins and so that's big, too."

Buhl Invitational results

Coach Knudson took some of his Tigers down to Buhl to wrestle at the 37th annual Buhl Invitational over the weekend. The Tigers placed 17th out of the 28 teams competing.

Cory Pinque was the only Tiger to place. He bounced back from his loss against Nampa and swept through the Buhl tourney to win the 130-pound weight class.

Coach Knudson was pleased with the efforts of the wrestlers that he took to the Buhl Invitational.

"We went down there with nine of our kids, and I enjoyed being down there with them as we were wrestling and kind of catching up where we were before the Christmas break. They were wrestling better and better during the tournament and doing the things we asked them to do, so improvement is happening and it's also happening at the JV level, so things look good."

While the nine varsity wrestlers were wrestling at the Buhl Invitational, a number of Tigers wrestled at a JV tournament at Canyon Springs High School in Twin Falls. The Tiger JV team finished fourth at that tournament, with five wrestlers placing.

Meanwhile, Nick Cruz won the 135-pound weight class.

Chance Llewellyn took third at 103 pounds, as did Jeff Checketts at 215 pounds. Fourth-place medals went to Brent Stempfly at 130 pounds and Justin Johnson at 152 pounds.

The Tigers are back on the mats at Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium tonight (Wednesday), hosting Kuna in a conference match. They wrestle at Middleton on Jan. 20 and go to the Parma Tournament Jan. 21-22.