Part 9: Mexico Lady Bulldogs home against conference rival Fulton and St. Charles West

Mexico Lady Bulldogs Inaugural Season-Part 9

By:  Jonathan Bowen

A home meet against conference rival Fulton and St. Charles West before kicking off an eight day, five meet roadtrip is how the Lady Bulldogs are kicking off their weekend of competition (they leave school early on Friday to compete so it counts as part of the weekend).  The Mexico squad was back to full strength with all the girls back healthy.  Hopeful to edge out Fulton who narrowly edged them earlier in the season at Fulton.  

St. Charles West, despite having a much larger population base to draw from, still has not formed a girls team so only their boys team would dual Mexico. At this point, St. Charles West High School is the only public high school in St. Charles County that does not have a girls team according to both trackwrestling.com and MSHSAA’s website.  After all of the growth and success the girls have had since their division was sanctioned, it should make everyone question “why” at this point.  

Below are the dual results from trackwrestling.com:  

102 Double Forfeit
107 Varsity – Katherine Bowen (Mexico) over Unknown (For.)
112 Varsity – Double Forfeit
117 Varsity – Emma Oglesby (Fulton) over Unknown (For.)
122 Varsity – Rylee Baker (Fulton) over Abbigale Drew (Mexico) (Fall 0:00)
127 Varsity – Double Forfeit
132 Varsity – Rylee Caswell (Fulton) over Unknown (For.)
137 Varsity – Kaylynn Pehle (Mexico) over Unknown (For.)
143 Varsity – Rilee Swaim (Fulton) over Choice Foster (Mexico) (Fall 0:00)
151 Varsity – Ivy Perez (Mexico) over Unknown (For.)
159 Varsity – Brett Iman (Mexico) over Unknown (For.)
174 Varsity – Carly Foster (Fulton) over Unknown (For.)
195 Varsity – Double Forfeit
235 Varsity – Double Forfeit

 

With both coaches attempting to out strategize one another and bumping wrestlers around to score points.  In the end, the team score was decided by the matchup at 122 lbs.  It was returning state medalist from Fulton, Rylee Baker, pinning her opponent Abbigale Drew (first year wrestler and freshman) after scoring a couple of quick takedowns.  Overall it was five weights won by Fulton and four weights by Mexico.  Final score was 30-24 in favor of the Lady Hornets.  

The next stop for the Lady Bulldogs travel schedule is Liberty North on Friday.  Then on Saturday they are in Brookfield for the Gary Haag Classic. The name Haag is very familiar to the Lady Bulldogs as one of  their boys’ teammates at the 220 lb. weight class is Gary’s grandson, Deacon Haag.  According to Google Maps, this will require the Lady Bulldogs to travel an estimate of just under 550 miles, compete in two tournaments, in just a little over a 24-hour time span.  Add this to the nearly four hundred miles that they traveled to Winnetonnka and back (along with the round trip to Willard), we’re looking at close to 1500 miles in a week.  We will see what these ladies are made of by the week’s end as they maintain their weights and recover from competition and travel.  

At Liberty North there are nearly thirty other teams scheduled to attend according to trackwrestling.com.  Most of these are from the western side of the state but District 4 opponents Kirksville and Macon will be in attendance as well as Francis Howell Central.  Francis Howell Central is in Mexico’s Sectional and could provide some potential matchups should any of the Lady Bulldogs make it past Districts.  Other notable teams the Lady Bulldogs could face-off against would be Harrisonville, Oak Park, Staley and the host Liberty North.

Next week (January 24-30) the girls have to travel to Kirksville, Marshall (this is their second trip there in the past month), and Seckman before coming home to kick off their first postseason as a team by hosting the District 4 Girls Tournament.  Kirksville is in District 4 along with the Lady Bulldogs and the Seckman Tournament will feature some potential sectional matchups, again, should the ladies move past districts.

What do you think?

Part 8: Mexico Lady Bulldogs close out 1500 mile week at Winnetonka

Part 10: Mexico Lady Bulldogs compete at Liberty North