The Wright City Wildcats Tournament has been a staple for the Lady Bulldogs schedule for several years now. Coach Senor, now in his 6th season as the head women’s coach at Mexico, knows that most of the sport of wrestling is mental and gaining experience. Getting a full competition before Thanksgiving Break is one of the little things that Coach Senor does to make sure his team is as prepared as they can be when February rolls around and the post-season starts. This year the Wright City tournament featured 12 teams (including Mexico). Out of those 12, five of them were District 2 Tournament matchups (Hannibal, Wright City, Palmyra, South Callaway, and Warrenton) and would be the first opportunity for the Lady Bulldogs to start accumulating seeding criteria for the District Tournament in February.
The Lady Bulldogs this year have the largest roster they have ever had heading into the start of the season. They brought a total of 13 wrestlers to Wright City in eight different weight classes (most of whom are freshman). Despite their youth though, the Lady Bulldogs performed very well up and down the lineup. Overall their individual match records were not a true indicator of how well they performed as several of their matchups were against teammates. In all, 55 total matches, the Lady Bulldogs won 22 of them.
Despite their low win total, they scored 187 total points through the day, finishing in 3rd and only 2 points behind the leaders Liberty (Wentzville) and St. Clair. Out of their 22 wins, the Mexico Lady Bulldogs earned 17 bonus-point wins (16 pins and 1 tech-fall). Their two quickest pins came from Nevaeh Varner and Kendal Sons, who both recorded 15-second pins. Ruby Lopez (115 lbs.) was the lone tech-fall winner on the day. During that match Lopez scored 24 points, which was the second most points in an individual match on the day. Even with that incredible performance, Lopez finished behind her teammates in total match points scored on the day. Lily Cuno and Ericka Peck were scoring machines in their matches, scoring 36 and 32, respectively. Lily Cuno led the team today with four pins on the day.
Out of the 13 wrestlers, 2 of the Lady Bulldogs were tournament champions (Lily Cuno at 100 lbs. and Kendal Sons at 190 lbs.). In addition, five other Mexico wrestlers finished in the top 4 in their weight class. Lehua Grantz at 110 lbs. finished in 3rd with 1 pin on the day and Addison Bowling at 115 lbs finished in 4th with 1 pin as well. Zuri Crews at 135 lbs. earned three pins on the day on her way to a 3rd place finish. Nevaeh Varner at 155 lbs. earned two pins (including one in 15 seconds) and finished third in her bracket. Lastly, Lillie Iman at 190 lbs. finished with a silver medal and a second place finish.
Up Next:
The Mexico Lady Bulldogs like everyone else have Thanksgiving Break. While some schools have elected to compete in the early part of the week, the Lady Bulldogs will not. They will continue to have practices but their next competition won’t be until December 1st at the Hallsville Lady Indian Tournament. Hallsville is bringing in 17 other teams (including Mexico) for this event. For some it will be their first competition of the season while Mexico will have an advantage of having already gone through that process at Wright City.
Out of the 17 teams scheduled to be there, 11 of them will be District 2 opponents for Mexico, including the host Hallsville and NCMC opponents Hannibal and Kirksville . This will be a solid test for the Lady Bulldogs and an opportunity to earn some early seeding criteria on their District 2 opponents. The Lady Bulldogs will have a quick turn-around for competition and wrestle a home quad-meet versus three District 2 opponents (Holt, Centralia, and Brookfield) on December 4th at Mexico High School. In addition, two of these schools (Centralia and Brookfield) were ranked in the top 10 most of last season and will provide some tough tests for the Lady Bulldogs.
Below are the individual match-by-match results for the Mexico Lady Bulldogs:
100 lbs.
Zoie Hawkins’s place is 5th and has scored 0.0 team points.
- Round 1 – Aaniyah Childs (St. Clair) won by fall over Zoie Hawkins (Mexico) (Fall 1:15)
- Round 2 – Hailey Dubois (Winfield) won by fall over Zoie Hawkins (Mexico) (Fall 2:21)
- Round 3 – Lilly Cuno (Mexico) won by fall over Zoie Hawkins (Mexico) (Fall 1:15)
- Round 4 – Cali Glover (Osage) won by fall over Zoie Hawkins (Mexico) (Fall 0:29)
100 lbs.
Lilly Cuno’s place is 1st and has scored 18.0 team points.
- Round 1 – Lilly Cuno (Mexico) won by fall over Cali Glover (Osage) (Fall 2:33)
- Round 3 – Lilly Cuno (Mexico) won by fall over Zoie Hawkins (Mexico) (Fall 1:15)
- Round 4 – Lilly Cuno (Mexico) won by fall over Hailey Dubois (Winfield) (Fall 2:51)
- Round 5 – Lilly Cuno (Mexico) won by fall over Aaniyah Childs (St. Clair) (Fall 1:29)
110 lbs.
Lehua Grantz’s place is 3rd and has scored 9.0 team points.
- Round 1 – Lehua Grantz (Mexico) won by fall over Sophie Pena (Liberty (Wentzville)) (Fall 0:31)
- Round 2 – Brooke Wideman (St. Clair) won by fall over Lehua Grantz (Mexico) (Fall 4:00)
- Round 3 – Regina McDaniel (Winfield) won by fall over Lehua Grantz (Mexico) (Fall 2:28)
115 lbs.
Ruby Lopez’s place is 6th and has scored 4.5 team points.
- Round 1 – Victoria Riggs (Wright City) won by fall over Ruby Lopez (Mexico) (Fall 1:28)
- Round 2 – Ruby Lopez (Mexico) won by tech fall over Katelyn Rees (South Callaway) (TF 24-8)
- Round 3 – Callie DeClue (St. Clair) won by fall over Ruby Lopez (Mexico) (Fall 0:22)
- Consolation Bracket – Ruby Lopez (Mexico) received a bye () (Bye)
- 5th Place Match – Katelyn Rees (South Callaway) won by fall over Ruby Lopez (Mexico) (Fall 0:51)
115 lbs.
Addison Bowling’s place is 4th and has scored 9.0 team points.
- Round 1 – Addison Bowling (Mexico) won by fall over Tyliah Ball (Winfield) (Fall 0:49)
- Round 2 – Kat Zink (Liberty (Wentzville)) won by fall over Addison Bowling (Mexico) (Fall 0:37)
- Round 3 – Addison Bowling (Mexico) received a bye () (Bye)
- Championship Bracket – Victoria Riggs (Wright City) won by fall over Addison Bowling (Mexico) (Fall 1:51)
- 3rd Place Match – Callie DeClue (St. Clair) won by fall over Addison Bowling (Mexico) (Fall 1:40)
135 lbs.
Zuri Crews’s place is 3rd and has scored 21.0 team points.
- Round 1 – Zuri Crews (Mexico) received a bye () (Bye)
- Round 2 – Zuri Crews (Mexico) won by fall over Izy Smith (Liberty (Wentzville)) (Fall 1:59)
- Quarterfinal – Zuri Crews (Mexico) won by fall over Caroline Young (South Callaway) (Fall 3:22)
- Semifinal – Dakota Lohrmann (Warrenton) won by fall over Zuri Crews (Mexico) (Fall 1:09)
- 3rd Place Match – Zuri Crews (Mexico) won by fall over Hannah Nguyen (Hannibal) (Fall 1:24)
140 lbs.
Makiya Workes’s place is 9th and has scored 0.0 team points.
- Round 2 – Ericka Pech (Mexico) won by fall over Makiya Workes (Mexico) (Fall 2:46)
- Round 3 – Lexi Daniels (Liberty (Wentzville)) won by fall over Makiya Workes (Mexico) (Fall 0:13)
- Round 4 – Lacie Dunakey (Sullivan) won by fall over Makiya Workes (Mexico) (Fall 5:36)
- Round 5 – Lindsey Bray (Winfield) won by fall over Makiya Workes (Mexico) (Fall 0:20)
- 9th Place Match – Makiya Workes (Mexico) received a bye () (Bye)
140 lbs.
Ericka Pech’s place is 6th and has scored 10.0 team points.
- Round 1 – Ericka Pech (Mexico) won by fall over Lacie Dunakey (Sullivan) (Fall 2:19)
- Round 2 – Ericka Pech (Mexico) won by fall over Makiya Workes (Mexico) (Fall 2:46)
- Round 4 – Lindsey Bray (Winfield) won by fall over Ericka Pech (Mexico) (Fall 5:59)
- Round 5 – Lexi Daniels (Liberty (Wentzville)) won by fall over Ericka Pech (Mexico) (Fall 0:20)
- 5th Place Match – Chloe Richardson (Union) won by fall over Ericka Pech (Mexico) (Fall 4:41)
155 lbs.
Nevaeh Varner’s place is 3rd and has scored 15.0 team points.
- Round 1 – Nevaeh Varner (Mexico) won by fall over Joshlyn Hawn (Wright City) (Fall 0:15)
- Round 2 – Jayden Mhandu (Liberty (Wentzville)) won by fall over Nevaeh Varner (Mexico) (Fall 0:31)
- Round 3 – Nevaeh Varner (Mexico) won by fall over Dezirae Shirley (Winfield) (Fall 0:24)
- Championship Bracket – Chloe Carson (Sullivan) won by fall over Nevaeh Varner (Mexico) (Fall 0:36)
- 3rd Place Match – Nevaeh Varner (Mexico) won by medical forfeit over Emily Ottens (Osage) (MFF)
170 lbs
Jayden Cross’s place is 12th and has scored 0.0 team points.
- Round 1 – Cassius Williams (Mexico) won by fall over Jayden Cross (Mexico) (Fall 0:52)
- Round 2 – Allison Vacek (Warrenton) won by fall over Jayden Cross (Mexico) (Fall 0:12)
- Round 4 – Annalynn Adams (Wright City) won by fall over Jayden Cross (Mexico) (Fall 1:12)
- Round 5 – Kyli Gibson (South Callaway) won by fall over Jayden Cross (Mexico) (Fall 0:24)
- Round 6 – Sadie Dunlap (Liberty (Wentzville)) won by fall over Jayden Cross (Mexico) (Fall 0:43)
170 lbs.
Cassius Williams’s place is 8th and has scored 3.0 team points.
- Round 1 – Cassius Williams (Mexico) won by fall over Jayden Cross (Mexico) (Fall 0:52)
- Round 3 – Allison Vacek (Warrenton) won by fall over Cassius Williams (Mexico) (Fall 0:12)
- Quarterfinal – Alex Dierberg (Union) won by fall over Cassius Williams (Mexico) (Fall 0:53)
- Cons. Round 1 – Crystal Diaz (Liberty (Wentzville)) won by medical forfeit over Cassius Williams (Mexico) (MFF)
- 7th Place Match – Harper Martin (Wright City) won by medical forfeit over Cassius Williams (Mexico) (MFF)
190 lbs.
Lillie Iman’s place is 2nd and has scored 0.0 team points.
- Round 1 – Kendal Sons (Mexico) won by fall over Lillie Iman (Mexico) (Fall 0:15)
- Round 2 – Kendal Sons (Mexico) won by fall over Lillie Iman (Mexico) (Fall 1:55)
190 lbs.
Kendal Sons’s place is 1st and has scored 6.0 team points.
- Round 1 – Kendal Sons (Mexico) won by fall over Lillie Iman (Mexico) (Fall 0:15)
- Round 2 – Kendal Sons (Mexico) won by fall over Lillie Iman (Mexico) (Fall 1:55)