Several Panthers were winners Saturday at the Wentzville Liberty Invitational and that resulted in team success for Centralia.

The Centralia boys had five first-place finishes and three runner-up finishes to accumulate enough points to win their tournament Saturday in St. Louis against 18 other schools. The Panthers finished with 262 points to defeat runner-up Fort Madison’s (Iowa) 208.5 thanks to the first-place medals earned by Bryson Dubes at 106 pounds, Rex Bryson at 138, Kyden Wilkerson at 157, Braydon Shelton at 165 and Seth Hasekamp at 285.

Finishing in second place were Weston Ward at 126 pounds, Ethan Adams at 150 and Ian Tuggle at 190. Wyatt Adkisson was third at 144, Jesse Shannon was fifth at 132, Mason Adkisson was fifth at 175 and Payton Mabrey was seventh at 215.

Dubes had three pins and a bye before winning first place by a 5-2 decision over Warrenton’s Emanuel McCauley, Bryson had three pins and a bye before winning first by pinfall, Wilkerson pinned his first four opponents before defeating Fort Madison’s Emmett Kruse by a 7-3 decision in the first-place match, Shelton scored five pinfalls on the day, and Hasekamp pinned all five of his opponents — including Fort Madison’s Daniel Sokolik at 2:32 in the first-place match.

Ward had a split day of two pins and two decisions — 7-3 and 10-2 — before losing by pinfall to Francis Howell Central’s Peyton Shepard. Adams won by pinfall thrice and then by a 5-3 decision against Sullivan’s Adam Peregoy before ultimately losing by a 9-2 decision in the first-place match to Fort Madison’s Henry Wiseman. Tuggle had two pins, a forfeit and a 5-2 decision victory over Liberty’s Kolton Martin before losing by 5-2 decision to Warrenton’s Jacob Ruff in the first-place match.

Ward leads Lady Panthers at Wentzville Liberty Invitational

A day before the Centralia boys were on the top of the podium, Ava Ward ascended there at the girls’ Wentzville Liberty Invitational in St. Louis.

On Friday, Ward won her four matches in the 120-pound weight class to take first place and make her one of four Lady Panthers to place in the tournament. Gretchen Marriott earned third place in the 155 class, and Madie Shelton was seventh at 125. Kayleigh Wiecken was the runner-up in the junior varsity 155 class.

Ward started her day with a 18-3 technical fall win before pinning her next three opponents to take first place, which was earned by a pin at the 2:29 mark against Francis Howell Central’s Stevie Lupo. Marriott won by pin twice but then lost in the semifinals via pinfall to put her in the third-place match, which she won by against North Point’s Ava Arrezzio. Shelton lost by an 8-2 decision, won twice by pin, and then was pinned before closing her day with a pin at 1:14 against Lindbergh’s Leila Hobson.

The Lady Panthers finished 14th out of 28 schools with 58.5 points, edging Lindbergh by a half point.

Wiecken had three pins and a bye before losing by pin in the first-place match.

Centralia wins home dual 57-24 vs Hannibal

After piling up hardware at tournaments, the Centralia boys were on their home mat Monday.

The Panthers defeated Hannibal 57-24 in a dual that saw seven win matches — six via pinfall.

After Hannibal took a 24-0 lead Jesse Shannon put Centralia in the win column with a pin in the 132-pound match and then Rex Bryson won a 10-9 decision against Cody Culp to score three points at 138 pounds. 

The streak of winning was just starting for Centralia as Wyatt Adkisson pinned his opponent in the 144-pound match, Brayden Shelton pinned at 175 pounds, Ian Tuggle won via pinfall at 190 pounds, Payton Mabrey was the pinfall victor at 215, and Seth Hasekamp added one more pin at 285.

Mexico boys finish 3-2 in Carrollton duals

After a busy day of wrestling Friday, the Mexico boys came away with a 3-2 record in Carrollton.

The Bulldogs competed against four teams in the Trojan Duals, defeating Carrollton 54-24, Lone Jack 45-30, and Marshall 39-35 — making up for their first dual loss of the season to the Owls. Mexico lost to Chillicothe 52-21 and Penney 42-36.

Gavin Martin at 132 and 138 pounds and Grant Van Horn at 138 were the Bulldogs to finish the day undefeated as Martin owned a 5-0 record and Van Horn had a 3-0 record. Martin won by pin four times and forfeit once while Van Horn was victorious in three matches all by pinfall.

Casey Minter’s undefeated streak in the 126- and 132-pound weight classes ended against Chillicothe, but he had two pinfall wins and an 8-5 decision victory against his Lone Jack opponent Barrett White. Kayle Martin in the 144 and 150 classes also dropped one match on the day against Chillicothe by a 16-7 decision but finished 4-1 with two pinfall wins and a 4-1 decision victory against Marshall’s Juninho Zelaya.

Dalton Arndt scored two pinfalls on the day against Marshall and Lone Jack in the 285-pound class.

North Callaway finishes third in Versailles, Kimbley at top of podium

Lane Kimbley earned another first-place medal early this season.

The North Callaway junior finished first in the 132-pound weight class Saturday at the Versailles Invitational, giving him his second individual top prize in as many tournaments. Eli Henry at 150 pounds and Casper Safranski at 190 finished in second to lead North Callaway to a third-place team finish with 163.5 points — behind winner Marceline’s 214.5 and runner-up School of the Osage’s 181.

Tristan Young won third place in the 106-pound weight class, and AJ Siegel and Cashton Holloway each finished fourth at 138 and 144, respectively.

Kimbley pinned his first four opponents before defeating Tipton’s Dalton Doss by a 16-7 major decision for first place. Henry won by a 22-5 technical fall and pinfall thrice before losing by a 6-2 decision to Southern Boone’s Hunter Jennings. Safranski won by pin twice and via a 12-0 major decision before being pinned by South Callaway’s Eli Benningfield in the first-place match.

Young clinched third place by forfeit but won via pinfall twice and lost by pin and a 7-4 decision to Adrian’s Carter Dumas on the way there. Siegel was 2-2 in matches that ended with a pin before being pinned by California’s Tristan Balsley in the third-place match. After winning by pinfall, Holloway won by a 5-0 decision but lost 3-2 and 13-7 before falling by a 16-0 technical fall to Jefferson City’s Deegan Mitchell for third place.

On Friday, North Callaway split a tri meet at Southern Boone in Ashland by defeating Kirksville 54-26 and losing to Southern Boone 44-34. Siegel at 138 pounds and Mathias Lobb at 165 defeated their Southern Boone opponents by a 13-0 major decision and by pinfall, respectively.