Missouri Wrestling
Mexico Lady Bulldogs Inaugural Season-Part 12
By: Jonathan Bowen
Winter weather is usually a culprit for missed school and events in Missouri during the high school wrestling season. This week was no exception. The Mexico Lady Bulldogs were scheduled to wrestle at Kirksville and at Marshall on Tuesday and Thursday respectfully. However, due to weather and road conditions this week, it just was not in the cards. The coaches and AD attempted to reschedule these meets as this is the last week of regular-season competition.
They were able to reschedule the quad originally set in Kirksville for a home meet for the Friday before the Lady Bulldogs travel to Seckman. Kirksville is a District 4 and Sectional opponent as well as a conference rival. The Lady Bulldogs are familiar with Brookfield as they saw this over the recent weekend at the Gary Haag Classic. Lastly, Palmyra is a Sectional opponent for the Lady Bulldogs. In all likelihood, Mexico will see these opponents over the next few weeks of post-season action.
As a team, the Lady Bulldogs performed nearly flawlessly and went 3-0 on the evening. With these duals, Mexico finishes their first regular season with a winning dual record and second in the NCMC conference standings behind Fulton.
Round 1 of the quad was Mexico vs. Palmyra: The final score was Mexico 30, Palmyra 18.
Round 2 of the quad was Mexico vs. Brookfield: The final score was Mexico 24, Brookfield 12.
Round 3 of the quad was Mexico vs. Kirksville: The final score was Mexico 30, Kirksville 6.
In all three rounds, the Lady Bulldogs would exchange a series of forfeits depending upon the two teams matching up weights. The good news for the Lady Bulldogs, they held the upper hand on all three of their opponents which helped get them off to an early lead.
Katherine Bowen: Overall went 3-0 on the night with two pins and a win by forfeit. She represented the 107 weight classes in order to get these matches and one of them she wrestled up at 112 for one of them as well. With these victories, she closes out her conference dual schedule undefeated at 5-0.
Abbigale Drew: She went 1-2 on the night with that one victory over the Kirksville opponent, avenging the loss suffered last week at the Liberty North Tournament. In one of her losses, she was wrestling up at 127. She closed out her conference schedule with a record of 3-3.
Kaylynn Pehle: She went 2-1 on the night with her lone loss being against the conference opponent from Kirksville. One of her victories was a pin towards the end of the second period versus Palmyra. She has been improving a lot the past month after coming off an injury. She finished her conference schedule with a record of 1-2.
Ivy Perez: Coming off an injury, she has been practicing and was able to go 3-0 on the night to give the Mexico Lady Bulldogs insurance points at her weight class. She finished her conference season with an overall 2-0 record.
Choice Foster: She went 3-0 on the evening, giving her some momentum going into the final tournament at Seckman. She finished her conference season with an overall record of 1-1.
Brett Iman: She wrestled up a weight class in order to get all three of her matches in for the evening and finished 2-1. She finished her conference season with an overall record of 2-1.
*So overall this season the Lady Bulldogs finished with a conference matches record of 14-7. In overall duals, the Lady Bulldogs finished second behind Fulton. Not bad for a first-year program.
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 post-season. They don’t have the numbers to contend for a team title but Senor is optimistic about getting several of his wrestlers through Districts.
