Centralia’s Madie Shelton has learned that a sport whose matches are six minutes require much more time than that.

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The sophomore qualified for the MSHSAA Class 1 girls state wrestling tournament from Feb. 22-27 at Mizzou Arena in Columbia after finishing third in the 120-pound weight class in the Class 1 District 2 tournament at North Point High School in Wentzville on Saturday. Shelton is Centralia’s second girl in two years to make it to the state tournament after Addison Mabrey competed last season.

Centralia girls head coach Tyler Forsee said Shelton has been around the sport of wrestling for much of her life as she has a sister and brother, current senior Brayden Shelton, who has wrestled. Regardless, Shelton said she started on the mat in eighth grade, so Forsee said it is encouraging when an underclassman like Shelton puts in extra work with the Purler Wrestling Academy.

“Madie has improved tremendously since last year,” Forsee said. “The Purler Wrestling Academy, she has done that. All summer and all fall, she was there literally every Tuesday night and it pays off. She came into the year with a lot better skillset than what she had last year.”

Forsee said Shelton’s performance was exceptional and definitely good enough to be one of her best tournaments. An aspect where Shelton really shine, Forsee said, was her positioning and not going for the big move all the time to score points.

By her own admission, Shelton said she doesn’t take enough time to get in the right position. This was the case against two of her victories during the district tournament — South Callaway’s Dalayna Hargis and Brookfield’s Addison Pope. Shelton defeated Hargis by a 20-12 major decision on Friday and edged Pope by a 3-1 decision for third place at the end of Saturday.

“I’ve had two girls that have been beating me all season,” Shelton said. “I beat both of them here. In my third-place match, typically I’m frantic, and the rest of the time, I move fast to try to pin them. This time, I just focused on strategic stuff — staying in positions and just being more careful.”

Off the mat, Forsee said he encouraged Shelton not to panic after losing to North Point’s Cassidy Benwell. At the end of the tournament, Benwell became the champion and Shelton needed to bounce back in the consolation semifinals against Marshall’s Amaiya McClinton to also make it to state. Shelton built a lead before finding her opportunity for a pinfall to secure her trip.

“I just told her, ‘Keep doing your stuff, stick to the things that we drill, stick to your game plans of attacking on our feet and keeping our knees under us when we’re on bottom so there’s more pressure on top,’” Forsee said. “She did a great job of that.”

Shelton agrees that her work on bottom positioning has improved much this season. Forsee said Shelton has great mental toughness, and Shelton’s changed comfort with being on bottom demonstrates this.

“At the beginning of the season, I wasn’t great at bottom,” Shelton said. “I hated being there, and I hated when the coaches put me there. Throughout the season, I had some great partners and some great coaching, and they helped me through it. Now, I feel very confident anytime they choose top or I pick bottom.”

Forsee and Shelton both feel confident she could place in the top six for a medal in two weeks at the state meet. He said the goal was to get there and now it is to place now that a Lady Panther is there.

Some other Lady Panthers had a chance at making it there as well, including seniors Gretchen Marriott and Besan Juma at 155 pounds and 235 pounds, respectively. They each were pinned in the consolation semifinals to miss state qualification by one round. Marriott lost in the bubble match for the second consecutive year while Juma was taken down with one move after being ahead 5-0 in the third period.

“Gretchen Marriott is a girl who had 40 wins for us, and she’s beaten several girls that are probably going to wrestling down there at state this year,” Forsee said. “She’s definitely a very quality wrestler. Unfortunately, she couldn’t get her shot.

“Besan is a first-year wrestler, and for a first-year kid, I thought she did an extraordinary job of getting to where she got to.”

Marriott lost to the second- and third-place wrestlers in her class while Juma was suddenly pinned by her class’ third-place wrestler after losing to the champion earlier.

Abigail Barte and Sophia Williams were each eliminated on Friday, but Forsee said they each improved while being coachable.