Missouri Wrestling
Mexico Lady Bulldogs Inaugural Season-Part 13
By: Jonathan Bowen
One more regular-season tournament. One more time having to get up and leave the school by 5:00 a.m. in order to make weigh-ins. This is after the night before the Mexico Lady Bulldogs faced off against a trio of opponents in their last home quad of the regulars season. This time their destination was Seckman High School. Some potential sectional matchups for the Lady Bulldogs as teams such as St. Charles, Winfield, and Wright City. The lone District 4 opponents would come from Fatima. The rest of the schools were from the Boothill and St. Louis schools who encompass Districts 1 and 2. In all, there were 28 teams originally scheduled to be at this tournament according to trackwrestling.com. However, due to a variety of reasons only sixteen teams that showed up for weigh-ins. Other schools in attendance included solid squads from Jackson, Ste. Genevieve and St. Charles.
No official team scores were kept at this tournament. Based on the numbers only 1st and 2nd place wrestlers medalled. Again, this is probably due to halving nearly half the teams scheduled to be there, who did not show up.
Katherine Bowen 2nd place at 102 lbs: Wrestled really well all day but came up short against a returning state qualifier and still undefeated opponent from St. Charles. The score was tied 0-0 after the first period but ended up getting pinned in the second period. Her other matches she secured the victory via pin, giving her an overall record of 3-1 on the day. She ended up medalling at every single tournament during the regular season.
Abbigale Drew 2nd place at 122 lbs: Abbigale has improved each tournament some way each week. She won her second match after losing the first round. Her second place finish is her third straight podium appearance at tournaments. She has some solid momentum going into the District Tournament.
Kaylynn Pehle 4th place at 132 lbs: Kaylynn started off strong with a pin in the early goings of the second period. She then dropped her next three matches, including losing to the still undefeated opponent from St. Charles. Heading into Districts, she is appearing confident and looking to improve each time she’s on the mat.
Choice Foster 3rd place at 143 lbs: Choice struggled in both of her matches today and was pinned in the first period each time.
Brett Iman 5th place at 159 lbs: There were not enough 151 lbs. wrestlers to make a full bracket so Brett bumped up to the 159 lbs. bracket to get a full set of matches. She lost her first two matches and then notched a win in her third match by a score of 7-1. She had a subsequent match for her fourth match of the day but according to track wrestling there was no final score listed.
The District Tournament (hosted by the Mexico Lady Bulldogs) is one week from the Seckman Tournament (Saturday, 1/30). There are currently no meets scheduled for the Lady Bulldogs during the weekdays leading up to the District 4 Tournament, which means they will have all week to make any last-minute adjustments going into the District 4 Tournament. After talking with Coach Senor, he seems very optimistic about the way his team is performing going into the final week of the regular season and gearing up for the postseason. They don’t have the numbers to contend for a team District 4 title but Coach Senor is optimistic about getting some of his wrestlers through Districts to the Sectional round. Just as a reminder, spectators will be limited at this event. You will need to contact the Mexico High School Athletic Director for exact details.
The way the postseason is working this year for the girls is that they will have two weeks before sectionals. Mexico’s sectionals, should any of the girls qualify take place in Versailles. This is happening to help reduce the risk of Covid-19 virus. Then, if they make it through to state, the Girls Tournament is on March 9th. Instead of the traditional location of Columbia, MSHSAA ruled that the tournament would take place in Independence, MO.
