Wrestling team falls to Caldwell but slams Bishop Kelly

The Mountain Home Tigers wrestling team came away with a split of its conference duals last week, losing on the road at Caldwell but winning at home against Bishop Kelly.

Caldwell 52

Mtn. Home 25

The Tigers dropped twice as many matches as they won Tuesday night at Caldwell, and the result was a 52-25 conference loss to the Cougars.

Ryan Goldsby and Solomon Chung-Hee picked up pins at Caldwell, Goldsby at 152 pounds and Chung-Hee at 220.

The other wins by Mountain Home came from Mike Gordon by forfeit at 285 pounds, Tanner Sessions by major decision (14-3) at 132 pounds, and Jaime Ibarra by decision (6-2) at 113.

Austin Clark dropped a tough 3-1 decision at 160 pounds, Jon Ryan lost a 10-3 decision at 195, and Nick Cruz lost a major decision (10-0) at 138. Losing by pin for the Tigers were Taylor Schwitters (126), Charlie Shoemaker (145), Josh Deal (170) and Jeff Checketts (182).

The Tigers also forfeited at 98, 106 and 120 pounds.

Tigers 64

Knights 17

Mountain Home bounced back a night later with a 64-17 conference dual win over Bishop Kelly in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium in Mountain Home Wednesday night.

The Tigers picked up five pins and five forfeits in the win. Winning by pins were Jaime Ibarra (113 pounds), Nick Cruz (138), Ryan Goldsby (152), Austin Clark (160) and Solomon Chung-Hee (285).

Winning by forfeits were Josh Saporta (106), Tanner Sessions (132), Josh Deal (182), Jeff Checketts (195) and Jon Ryan (220).

Charlie Shoemaker won by major decision (12-2) at 145 pounds.

Colt Lohmeier lost by technical fall (15-0) at 170 pounds, Taylor Schwitters lost by pin at 126 and the Tigers forfeited at 120 pounds. Both teams forfeited at 98 pounds.

Mountain Home Tiger wrestling coach Lynn Knudson was pleased with the way his wrestlers bounced back from their losing effort at Caldwell the night before.

"Coming out of a loss at Caldwell last night, I was hoping that we would be on top of it, because we wrestled a little flat last night. I saw a lot of improvement tonight.

"BK's young, but we worked with our kids once we got weighed in and everything. We went up there (to the wrestling room) and basically had a little mini-practice and talked about things that we need to improve on and it worked out well for us.

"Hopefully we can just keep things going and there's just so much improvement that I see each and every match. We maybe went backwards a little bit last night (at Caldwell), but for the most part it's really coming around."

The Bishop Kelly win improved the Tigers to 3-2 in conference duals, and 11-7 on the season. They wrestle at the Parma Tournament this Friday and Saturday.