Wrestling team to send 20 wrestlers to state tourney

The Mountain Home Tigers will send 20 of their wrestlers to this year's state tournament after the team finished third at Saturday's District III 4A wrestling tournament at Caldwell.

The Tigers finished behind Caldwell and Kuna put were well ahead of fourth-place Middleton. Skyview was fifth and Bishop Kelly sixth.

Mountain Home qualifying state wrestlers include five champions, two runners-up, five third-place finishers, five fourth-place finishers and three at-large wrestlers. The five Tiger wrestlers that won district championships were Pierce Mederios in the 106-pound weight class, Tyler Heath at 132, Tanner Sessions at 145, Jacob Ryan at 195 and Jose Ortiz at 285 pounds.

The two wrestlers that finished second were Kanoa Doronio at 113 pounds and Tyler McCall at 170. The five third-place finishers were Hunter McCluskey (98), Brad Keierleber (152), Taylor Ogaard (182), Dallin Dearing (220) and Jonathan Kaiser (285).

The five fourth place efforts went to Seth Dolan (106), Dallas Mayhew (113), Tyler Hardin (138), Jayden Sexton (160) and Daniel Cruz (182).

Winning at-large berths were Jacob Lucas (120), who finished fifth at district as well as Zack Slack (132) and Andrew Thornburg (145), who both finished sixth in their weight classes. Although somewhat disappointed that they did not win the district meet, Tigers wrestling coach Lynn Knudson was pleased with the efforts of his wrestlers.

"The district tournament didn't go quite like we planned, but overall, our kids performed really well," the coach said. "Pierce Mederios came out with an outstanding performance in winning a district championship along with Tyler Heath, Tanner Sessions, Jacob Ryan and Jose Ortiz. These guys were solid for us all year long. Now we just need to get every one of our wrestlers performing at the state tournament.

"Hunter McCluskey, Seth Dolan, Kanoa Doronio, Dallas Mayhew, Jacob Lucas, Zach Slack, Tyler Hardin, Andrew Thornburg, Brad Keierleber, Jayden Sexton, Tyler McCall, Taylor Ogaard, Daniel Cruz, Dallin Dearing and Jonathan Kaiser have all contributed to a great season and have the ability to place and score for our team, and can really help us at the state tournament," the coach added. "We have 20 of our wrestlers going to state, and that's fantastic."

The 4A State Wrestling Championships are Friday and Saturday at Idaho State University in Pocatello.