Kirksville, Mexico Have Strong Showings in First Day of State Wrestling

57 of the 67 boys wrestlers are advancing to the second day of the MSHSAA wrestling championships at Mizzou Arena, and 35 of them are in quarterfinal matches.

NCMC schools Kirksville and Mexico will have all their grapplers in matches Friday. Kirksville senior Donovan Gaines is one of seven Tigers who will be in a quarterfinal match Friday.

Mexico senior Brayan Juarez is a three-time state qualifier for the Bulldogs, but he hadn’t recorded a state victory until today. He shared how he changed his mindset.

Kirksville came in with 11 state qualifiers and Mexico had seven. Fellow NCMC school Moberly had four of six advance to the quarterfinals, including Zach Lewis, Tristan Morris, Jarrett Kinder, and Andrew Huff.

In Class 1, four freshman will make up Centralia’s quarterfinal group. Brayden Dubes, Jesse Shannon, Brayden Shelton and Kyden Wilkerson all collected victories for the Panthers. Coach Luke Gramke isn’t surprised by their early success.

Upperclassman Grafton Littrell, Trevor Bodine, and Sam Lynn also will advance to the quarterfinals.

Marceline will have four quarterfinalists. Sophomore Hunter Nelson picked up a 9-3 decision victory, and he’s already focusing on the next day.

Brookfield, Father Tolton, Hallsville, Macon, and North Callaway will all have their wrestlers back tomorrow as well.

On the girls side, there will be no state champion this year, but the Lady Tigers of Marceline had two of their three grapplers wrestle back into Friday. Lady Tigers coach Austin Bruner shares his opinion of what the greatest difference is between this year’s state tournament compared to last.