Missouri Wrestling
Mexico Lady Bulldogs Inaugural Season-Part 6
By: Jonathan Bowen
The Lady Bulldogs were originally scheduled to face-off against the Macon Lady Tigers on Wednesday, January 13th concurrently with the Mexico Boys team hosting both Hannibal and Macon. But due to a recent quarantine of the entire roster (on Macon’s side), they were not able to compete. Hannibal has yet to start a girls wrestling team and they are only of two teams left in the NCMC (Mexico’s Conference) to not offer a women’s program to complement their boys’ program. (The other being Moberly.) However, despite this setback, the Lady Bulldogs traveled down to their NCMC rival and District 4 opponent, Fulton as the Fulton Lady Hornets hosted a quad featuring Battle High School and Hickman High School (both of Columbia). All four of these schools are in District 4 together so postseason positioning will take another step closer towards its final shape.
This is the first time Mexico has faced off against the Hickman Kewpies and Battle Lady Spartans but Fulton is familiar. The Lady Bulldogs saw them at the Blair Oaks tournament as well as the Eldon tournament. The Lady Bulldogs were short-handed tonight as their starting 151 lb. wrestler was placed on Quarantine earlier in the week. However, despite being short-handed the Lady Bulldogs had a solid showing. Below are the team scores and results of the duals tonight:
Round 1: Lady Bulldogs 12 vs. Hickman Kewpies 18- Loss
Round 2: Lady Bulldogs 18 vs. Battle Lady Spartans 18- Mexico lost on Criteria
Round 3: Lady Bulldogs 12 vs. Fulton Lady Hornets 24- Loss
So overall as a team, they went 0-3 with one of their teammates being out sick. Considering the Lady Bulldogs don’t have anyone above 151 lbs this season, Coach Senor’s squad performed well.
The four Mexico competitors that were able to compete tonight all fought well in each of their matches. Every girl had at least three matches scheduled while Kaylynn Peale wrestled an additional scheduled exhibition match against one of the other teams’ backup at 132 lbs.
107: Katherine Bowen went 3-0 on the evening and scored two pins against her first two opponents while Fulton was open at her weight class.
122: Abby Drew also went 3-0 on the evening. She pinned two of her opponents and received a win by forfeit as well against Hickman.
132: Kaylynn Peale went 2-2 on the evening, with one of them being her previously mentioned exhibition match. She secured one pin and another win by forfeit.
143: Choice Foster went 0-3 during the quad. In one of her matches, she was leading before getting caught. Both Coach Senor and several parents who were in attendance are noticing how she’s improving with each match.
The Lady Bulldogs have plans to travel south to Willard High School on Saturday to take part in the Lady Tiger Pride Battle Tournament. Mexico will be one of fourteen teams competing. The other teams from District 4 will be Camdenton, Centralia, and Eldon. The rest of the teams are all based in and around the Springfield area. Some tough competition to be had. They will have only Sunday off before they’re on the road again to the Kansas City Metro for the Winnetonka Tournament which takes place on MLK Day. The good news for Mexico is that this is the first day of the two-pound growth allowance. At the latest announcement for this tournament, no spectators are allowed at this event. The streaming link can be found at the end of this article. Wrestling will start at 9:00 a.m.
Starting next Thursday (January 21st), the Lady Bulldogs will have their toughest stretch (in terms of traveling) to date as they are hosting a triangular meet on Thursday against Fulton and St. Charles West. They then will travel to Liberty North on Friday, and Saturday they are in Brookfield for the Gary Haag Classic. 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. We will see what these ladies are made of by the week’s end.
Link for live stream for Monday’s Winnetonka Tournament: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU9b58gnNur-OfzOUdFr2bQ
