Missouri Wrestling
By: Jonathan Bowen
Early starts are a wrestling tradition that has been around for decades. Coaches and parents alike getting up at 4:00 a.m. and getting the wrestlers on the bus to then travel to make it in time for morning weigh-ins. However, in a The Lady Bulldogs traveled west on a non-traditional late start tournament. Marshall was hosting a girls and boys tournament co-currently this weekend, but due to their current Covid-19 restrictions in their area, they were forced to run a split session tournament which has been a trend for many years among little league tournaments. This worked out in Mexico’s favor as they were scheduled for the afternoon session and were coming off a late-night of wrestling in Jefferson City the day before. The girls were well-rested and ready for their third straight day of competition.
One of their teammates, Ivy Perez, would not make the trip today as she sustained an injury during one of her matches at the Capital City tournament. Coach Senor is hopeful that she can return to the lineup next week.
Despite being down one teammate, the Lady Bulldogs performed really well overall as a team as well as some individual accomplishments. No spectators were allowed so coverage of the event was spent flipping between the different Youtube Channels available that Marshall was running. They were able to consistently have dedicated cameras (albeit without audio) to each mat without glitches as I had three separate windows streaming throughout the afternoon. The only downside was that trackwrestling.com was not set up to assign mat numbers or bouts so keeping a steady eye and alternating views was a must. In the school’s defense, this was the first time they’ve attempted to stream multiple mat surfaces at the same time and as stated earlier, there were very few if any glitches compared to what this reporter has heard about other schools and their attempts to stream this past weekend.
At the end of the day, the Lady Bulldogs would wind up in 3rd place as a team (behind Marshall and Gallatin) with all five competitors medaling in the top three. This is now the new and current record for most medalists for the Lady Bulldogs in a meet. They previously had four medalists, which was set the day before at the Capital City High Girls Scramble.
Below is a brief summary of each of the girls’ wrestling at the Marshall Tournament.
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Katherine Bowen placed 1st. After having a somewhat frustrating Friday night in Jefferson City, Katherine racked up two pins on her way to securing the 107 lb. bracket.
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Abbigale Drew placed 1st. Two straight tournaments and two first-place finishes for Abbigale. Coach Senor is impressed with how she’s been trying to improve each match and willing to pin her opponents.
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Kaylynn Pehle placed 3rd. After a 6th place finish on Friday, Coach Senor was definitely impressed by the way Kaylynn wrestled on Saturday. She secured her first pin of her season as well as for her career en route to her 3rd place finish.
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Choice Foster placed 3rd. Two meets in a row and two consecutive medals for Choice. After taking second at Capital City, she followed up with a third-place finish here in Marshall. She continues to be coachable regardless of the outcome of the matches she has according to Head Coach Senor.
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Brett Iman placed 3rd. Like several of her teammates, Brett earned a medal for the second straight tournament. She finished 2nd on Friday night while finishing in 3rd on Saturday.
The Lady Bulldogs’ next competition is on Wednesday, January 13th. It is a home meet against their conference opponent the Hannibal Pirates and Macon Tigers (a District 4 opponent). They then will travel Thursday, January 14th for another conference matchup in Fulton to faceoff against the Fulton Hornets and District 4 opponent, the Hickman Kewpies. On Saturday, January 16th, the Lady Bulldogs are scheduled to travel to southern Missouri to wrestle in the Lady Tiger Pride Tournament, Hosted by Willard High School. This will be a tough test for the ladies with seventeen other teams are scheduled to be there.
