The first day couldn’t have been much better for the Centralia boys.

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The Panthers went 20-2 on the first day of the MSHSAA Class 1 wrestling championships at Mizzou Arena on Wednesday and closed out the next day as state champions for the second time in three years. Centralia had more points at the end with 198 than its school record 194.5 points two years ago and came home with two individual state champions in Bryson Dubes at 106 pounds and Rex Bryson at 165 pounds.

Centralia head coach Luke Gramke said there are plenty of people to thank for this year’s state title as was the case two years ago, including the community, the youth coaches in the town’s youth programs, the school district’s coaches and the parents. Gramke expected good effort from his boys at state, considering all that, but maybe not a first day that good. Out of the 20 victories on Day 1, the Panthers posted 18 bonus-point victories — pinfall, technical fall and major decision.

“That first day was probably the best round of wrestling that I’ve been a part of as a coach,” Gramke said. “I attribute it to winning being contagious. All of our kids then saw it as winning is an option. We had a lot of people and officials congratulating us on a great round, and it was neat seeing that many people taking notice of the success we were having.”

The winning was certainly contagious and so were the state medals. Eight Panthers advanced to the semifinals and all 10 qualifiers advanced to the second day, which started with a 95-54.5 points lead and finished with a 198-112.5 result over Brookfield. Five made it to the finals on Thursday, including Dubes, Bryson, Waylon Adkisson at 113 pounds, Charlie Robinson at 132 and Louis Suddarth at 157.

Centralia’s other medalists included Blake Bodine’s sixth place at 126 pounds, Wyatt Adkisson’s fourth place at 175, Mason Adkisson’s sixth place at 190, Ian Tuggle’s third place at 215 and Marshall Kable’s sixth place at 285. 

Dubes was one of four seniors on Centralia’s state representation this season after being part of the school’s first ever state championship team two years ago. He earned a third-place medal that year but returned home from last year’s state championships empty-handed. 

Last year’s state meet result was Dubes’ “main motivation” for this season and he is happy that all the time and effort put in turned into his third state medal, his first ever individual state title and the latest individual championship in the family after three-time state champion Brayden. Dubes said the desire for success was present in everybody.

“We had a lot of really good athletes two years ago,” Dubes said. “This year, we’ve just become 100 percent family and each pushed every single one of the others. Every one of these guys have pushed me, and I think I’ve pushed a lot of them, too.”

Rex Bryson is also a first-time state champion after finishing second two years ago and third last year. He called it “11 years in the making” as his wrestling journey finally culminated in a spot on the top of the podium after a 51-1 record but is even happier that the team state title is coming back to Centralia.

“Two years ago, we were expected to win as we had a very stacked team,” Bryson said. “This year, we had a lot of guys that came in unranked and weren’t really expected to win it. Those guys worked all offseason and worked during the season. You have kids like Waylon Adkisson and Mason Adkisson that came up the rankings and ended up medaling as well as Wyatt Adkisson pushing through an injury and Blake Bodine got himself on the podium, too.”

Gramke said the dominant results only happened because of the team’s ability to overcome adversity. Dubes had a “roller coaster” of a season and turned a 9-14 record around Christmas break into a 23-15 record at the end. His senior’s decision to cut weight “the right way” and not just focusing on water weight and not eating.

“He switched weight classes a few times and was able to do it with a disciplined lifestyle,” Gramke said. “He didn’t cut weight the wrong way. He was able to focus on getting better at wrestling instead of focusing on his weight. That was what I was most proud of, just him making the choice to put forth a great effort and it paying off for him.”

Dubes finished his career with a 4-2 victory over Marceline’s Reece Stufflebean. While Dubes doesn’t like to brag about his ability, he has the medal and large bracket to back it up.

“I just tried to stay in my good position and work myself in neutral,” Dubes said. “I don’t want to brag or anything, but I’m pretty good in neutral and I think that’s what won me the match.”

Bryson definitely had state title aspirations going into this season but had a bit of a scare near the end of football season in the fall when he sustained a high ankle sprain. It didn’t slow him down as the aspirations were still intact.

“His greatest quality is his competitive nature,” Gramke said. “If you are playing rock paper scissors, he wants to win. If he was playing my one-year-old son in rock-paper-scissors, he would still want to win. There is nothing he is OK with being bad at. He’s the most competitive kid I've ever coached.”

Naturally, Gramke said injuries don’t stand a chance against Bryson either, and he confirmed as much. 

“I got very lucky,” Bryson said. “I really haven’t had any problems with it since maybe the first couple of tournaments.”

It is natural to this team that the state champions aren’t the only examples of working through adversity, Gramke said. Wyatt Adkisson is a senior who was also on the state championship team two years ago and was coming off a fourth-place medal at last year’s tournament. This season, however, Adkisson was dealt a bad hand with what Gramke called a “traumatic” shoulder injury.

“There are not many kids that could wrestle one match, let alone the postseason like he did with that severe of an injury,” Gramke said. “He had a setback at districts and he came home with a state medal wrestling with one arm. That was unbelievable at a very competitive weight class.”

Senior Mason Adkisson didn’t have an easy road either in a high school career “riddled with injury after injury after injury,” according to Gramke. On top of that, Adkisson was one of two Panthers who had to wrestle back after losing his quarterfinals match — via a 5-3 decision. 

“For him to leave with a state medal as a senior is a special moment,” Gramke said. “We’ve been blessed with a lot of hardworking kids and kids who wrestled for their teammates and just demonstrated great effort up and down the lineup” 

Gramke said he and his coaches feel “spoiled” by how many great kids they have in their program and will feel that way next year when six of those 10 state qualifiers and four of those finalists return. Dubes, Wyatt and Mason Adkisson, and Tuggle all finish on the podium, and Centralia wants more next year.

“Whether it’s a good match or a bad match, you need to have a short-term memory,” Gramke said. “With us walking away with a state title, we’re going to have a short-term memory. For the next month, we’re going to celebrate our seniors and our success this season, but then we’re going to put it behind us.”