On Valentine’s Day weekend the girls wrestling teams from across the state battled it out at their respective District tournament to earn a shot at competing at the state tournament held in Columbia. Two of those women wrestling teams (Centralia and Mexico) wrestled at Mexico High School to take part in the Class 1 District 2 Tournament on Friday evening and all day Saturday. Their goal was to reach a top four finish in their respective weight classes to advance to the state tournament held February 25-26 at Mizzou Arena.
Mexico, sporting a very young roster this year, brought seven ladies to compete (majority freshmen, 2 seniors). Their two seniors are both returning state qualifiers, Abigail Bowen(140 lbs.) and Alexus Johns (235 lbs). Out of the seven wrestlers, five of them survived Day 1 of wrestling, with the two seniors reaching the semi-finals and three of the freshmen advancing on the consolation side of the bracket. Day 2 didn’t start off well for the Lady Bulldogs with everyone on the consolation side losing their first or second round match leading up to the semi-final round, leaving only the two seniors with an opportunity to qualify for State. Alexus Johns as the 1 seed was able to dispatch her opponent, the 5th seed from Hannibal in just nine seconds via a pin, sending Johns back to the State Tournament for the fourth time.
Bowen had the much tougher match-up with the #1/#2 ranked girl at 140 lbs. and a returning state medalist. After scoring the first takedown, Bowen’s opponent from Wright City found a different gear and scored a reversal and a set of nearfall points as the first period expired taking the 6-3 lead into the second period. It didn’t get any better for the Lady Bulldog wrestler as she gave up a takedown towards the end of the second period and headed into the 3rd down 9-4. Her opponent chose the top position to start the 3rd period of wrestling. Both wrestlers gave every effort possible, with just seconds left her opponent pinned her, sending Bowen to the consolation side of the bracket.
Losing the semi-finals is not the end of the world because once you reach that stage, you still have the opportunity to win a single consolation match to qualify for state. This is not unfamiliar territory for Abigail Bowen, as she had made it to the blood round of the district tournament each year of her high school career and held a 2-1 record heading into her matchup against her opponent from St. Charles West, Avery Cady. These two have faced off a handful of times in previous seasons with Bowen coming out on top each time. This match-up was no different with Bowen, taking control quickly and often. She had built a 10-1 lead before pinning her opponent from St. Charles West HS halfway through the second period, punching her ticket to the State tournament for the third straight year. Abigail Bowen would also take a medical forfeit win in her placement match as her opponent from Tipton was injured during a previous match, closing out her high school career with two more wins in her home gymnasium.
Alexus Johns on the other hand faced off against the #2 seed from Holt, Angela Bereuter. These two faced off a month ago in the same gym at the Brick City Classic with Johns taking that match via a pin. However, it would be revenge time for Bereuter. Both wrestlers vying for position in the first period and looking for an upper body throw of some kind. This time it was Bereuter who was able to get into a dominant position pinning Johns in under 30 seconds.
Like Mexico, the Centralia Lady Panthers are also a young team this year featuring 0 seniors. They are also missing a defending state champion from their lineup due to an injury sustained earlier this season. However, they still had 1 returning state qualifier in their lineup (Avery Adams at 100 lbs.). The Lady Panthers brought eight wrestlers and all of them won at least one match on Friday evening to advance to Day 2 of the District Tournament. They had one semi-finalist (Adams) and the other seven were battling it out on the consolation side of their brackets.
Three of their seven wrestlers advanced to the consolation semi-final round after winning 2-3 consecutive matches. Adams however, lost her first match on Saturday to Owensville sending Adams to the consolation semi-final round. In the blood round, the Lady Panthers would go 2-2, ending two of their young wrestlers’ seasons (Analeigh Bruce and Triztyn Tinker) and advancing the other two (Adams and Griggs) to the medal round and qualifying for the state tournament.
Despite being in the next town over, Griggs of Centralia and Berendzen of Hallsville, neither of these wrestlers met during the regular season. The match started off well for Hallsville, with Berendzen scoring a late first period takedown and taking a narrow 3-2 lead into the second period. Berendzen picked up right where she left off and started off period two with a quick takedown and a 4-point set of nearfall points to increase her lead to 10-2. However, she got out of position and Griggs took full advantage and scored a reversal and a 4-point nearfall score of her own to close the gap to 10-8 by the end of the second period. Griggs chose top to start the third period knowing she had just turned Berendzen just before the end of the second period. She needed only a 2-point move to tie the match to send it into overtime. Both wrestlers fought each other’s moves and counters but with less than 30 seconds left in the match Griggs was able to capitalize on her positioning and tilted Berendzen for 4 seconds, giving her the narrow 12-10 lead with just 20 seconds to go. Griggs was holding on for dear life and refused to let go of her opponent. The whistle blew sending Griggs to the state tournament and the last of the Hallsville Lady Indian wrestlers ended their season.
Adams won a nailbiter of a match against Marceline by a score of 9-8 sending her back to state again this year, while Griggs had the aforementioned match against Hallsville’s Berendzen. Both Adams and Griggs lost their placement matches, having earned 4th place in their respective weight classes (100 and 110). They will face a District champ from one of the other 3 districts at the first round of state next week.
If you want to catch the Lady Bulldogs or Lady Panthers state qualifiers in action next week, the opening ceremony for the Class 1 Girls State Tournament starts at 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday, February 25th with wrestling starting immediately afterwards. In order to advance to Day 2 the wrestlers would have to win at least 2 matches. All tickets would have to be purchased in advance via the MSHSAA website.
