For their first set of duals of the season, the Mexico Lady Bulldogs hosted a quad meet featuring three other teams from the District 2 tournament list that was recently released via MSHSAA’s website (Wentzville-Holt, Centralia, and Brookfield). It was a solid test for this young squad of wrestlers (only 3 seniors on the team and about ⅔ of them are freshmen) as all three of their opponents finished ahead of them at the District 2 tournament last season. In fact, Brookfield won the District 2 team title quite convincingly and finished with a team trophy at the state tournament as well.
All four of these teams have several returning wrestlers each including some state qualifiers scattered around each of the four teams.
Round 1: Mexico 42 (won on criteria) vs. Brookfield 42
Starting off the evening with one of the best girls’ programs in the state is always a challenge. Brookfield however, had five open weights to start the evening which gave Mexico a nice 30-point cushion but it wouldn’t last. Brookfield’s lightweights won five straight matches by pin or by forfeit to take their score up to 30 and have the dual tied.The team score would go back and forth throughout the match and end up tied at 42-42. Two matches that stood out for Mexico and were the turning points of the dual were at 135 lbs. And 235 lbs.
At 135 lbs. freshman Zuri Crews was involved in a back and forth match with each wrestler vying for position. Despite giving up the initial takedown and some nearfall points, Crews scored a reversal and was able to take her opponent to her back and secured the pin just a few seconds before the end of the first period. Alexus Johns, who’s no stranger to getting pins, stepped up as one of the seniors and pinned her opponent from Brookfield in just over a minute. With the score being tied after her match, the winner was determined by the tiebreaker criteria outlined in the NFHS rulebook and based on the least amount of forfeits, Mexico was given the nod for the dual victory in round one.
Round 2: Mexico 30 vs. Centralia 53
The Centralia Lady Panthers have had solid lightweight wrestlers (similar to Brookfield) over the last couple of seasons. Tonight they were able to show why they might be a team to be reckoned with come February. During the first 7 matches they didn’t give up a single team point to Mexico and took a 41-0 lead over the Lady Bulldogs at the halfway point in the dual. That lead would hold for the Centralia Lady Panthers for the rest of the round despite a late surge by Mexico. The final score was 53-30 in favor of Centralia.
Round 3: Mexico 30 vs. Holt 54
During the final round of the night, Mexico’s young squad struggled to get any sort of winning momentum going and the more experienced Holt team took full advantage by winning 5 of the first seven matches of the dual and a sizable 30-12 lead heading into the second half of the dual. During the second half of the dual, the Lady Bulldogs earned 3 victories but Holt was able to take four of the other matches making their lead insurmountable to close out the evening for Mexico.
Overall the Lady Bulldogs went 1-2 on the evening as a team. However, several of their individual wrestlers would go undefeated (3-0) on the evening including Abigail Bowen (140), Ericka Pech (145), and Alexus Johns (235). Several other Mexico wrestlers notched at least one win on the night and the beginnings of creating seeding criteria when it comes to the post-season in February. The Lady Bulldogs will be on the road for their next competition in Carrollton on 12/12/25 for a dual tournament. Along with Mexico, there are five other teams currently listed as participating: Carrollton, Guadalupe Charter, Hallsville, Penny, and Warsaw. While most of these schools are not in District 2, they will be a solid barometer for the Lady Bulldogs in how they can stack up against teams outside of their District.
Mexico was originally scheduled to be at the Hallsville tournament earlier this season but due to inclement weather, it was cancelled. Because of this cancellation, Mexico was able to add the Blair Oaks tournament which will take place on Wednesday December 17th. Mexico has attended this event in the past but this will be the first time in four seasons that they have gone to it.
