Jonathan Bowen
It was another set of firsts for the Mexico Lady Bulldogs on the Monday after Thanksgiving. First, it was the first time they would compete at the Hallsville Varsity Girls tournament. Secondly, it was also the first time the Mexico Middle School Lady Bulldogs would wrestle alongside their older counterparts at the varsity level.
Between the two teams, the lady wrestlers from Mexico took up a huge section of the gym bleachers. Throughout the night you could see the girls from both teams watching, learning from, hugging, fist-bumping, high-fiving, and cheering each other on all afternoon and into the evening. One of the mats ended up having to be moved to the school’s cafeteria. It was no big deal for each lady bulldog wrestler to have a small group of teammates following them across the school to support their teammate who was about to wrestle their match.
The Varsity side of the tournament was crucial for the Lady Bulldogs as all but one of the teams (Francis Howell) will be in their District Tournament in February. Five of the ten wrestlers were able to secure wins over District Tournament opponents. (6 if you include the 110 lb. bracket). Despite the number of teams there, Mexico was the only team at the tournament with a 110 lb. wrestler, Lilly Debo. It is early in the season and a lot of things can and most likely will change but, Debo won’t have to worry about wrestling District opponents from these seven other schools.
The other Lady Bulldog Wrestlers who scored key District wins were Alexus Johns vs. Stover, Tessa Higgins (2) vs. Kirksville and Stover, Abigail Seibert vs. Macon, Abigail Bowen vs. Hallsville, and Alizabeth Welch vs. Kirksville.
Highlight Match of the Night: Tessa Higgins, wrestling for the first time this season. At 190 lbs for this tournament, she had tough matches in each of her five rounds. Her last match of the night was against NCMC opponent Kirksville….
