The Centralia Panthers sent a total of 13 state qualifiers between the girls and boys divisions. This was among the leaders out of all Class 1 schools in attendance at the 2025 MSHSAA State Wrestling Tournament. The road to either an individual or a team championship is never easy. However, if you followed the Panthers team over the two-day state tournament, they made it look at least somewhat easy.
Heading into the state tournament, the Centralia Boys’ Team were clear favorites to come home with a trophy and in the first round of wrestling they made a huge crystal-clear statement as to why. The Panthers had ten boy wrestlers going and all ten of them won, advancing to the quarterfinals. Not only did they win, they won convincingly with seven pins and three tech falls, nearly scoring the highest point total a team can earn in round one.
The winning trend continued for the Panthers in the quarterfinals with only a couple of “setbacks.” The Panthers would go on to win eight of their ten bouts, guaranteeing the team 8 medals and a sizable lead that at one point was close to or more than double the second place team’s score.
The two losses (Blake Bodine at 126 and Mason Adkisson at 190 lbs.) ended up being the only two losses on the day for the Panthers, and they were only temporary setbacks for those wrestlers as they would be sent to the consolation side of the bracket with an opportunity to continue wrestling on Day 2.
