Mexico boys wrestling has earned many team accolades this season.

There have been individual ones of course with many medals and 100th-career wins, but the Bulldogs added another tournament championship to their season by winning the MMA Colonels Classic on Saturday. The Bulldogs finished with 212.5 points, which was ahead of St. Louis University High School's 162.5 points in second place.

Mexico has won five other tournaments in the bracket format like Saturday’s at Missouri Military Academy, won a North Central Missouri Conference title in the final year of the conference and went 5-0 in its home duals tournament. Head coach Jake Vitale said he and his kids thought they were the team to beat going into the day and think they have a tough team that can go to state.

Mexico at MMA Colonel Classic Photo Gallery

“We’ve got a real shot of getting a lot of kids through,” Vitale said. “Part of getting a team trophy, if we look back at 2018, the year we won a state title, we don’t win a state title without some of those kids who qualified and only won one or two matches.”

Trevor Cole at 106 pounds, Carlos Juarez Ramirez at 113, Logan Hilderman at 126 and Grant Walker at 190 won their respective weight classes while Mexico had other medalists who finished in the top three, including Israel Hernandez-Jarquin in second at 144, Kyler Carr in second at 157 and Travis Shramek in second at 285 and Brenden Wilson in third at 165.

The freshman Cole is undefeated this season so has had a great start to his high school career. Vitale said it is such a strength to have both Cole and Juarez Ramirez in the same lineup, which is why Juarez Ramirez was bumped up to 113. 

“You never want one of the top kids in the state to be sitting out,” Vitale said. “Carlos is good enough where he can win a state title at 113 if he is feeling like himself and he gets his offense going like he did today.”

Vitale said Juarez Ramirez went through “a slump” by putting himself in bad positions and struggling with the weight adjustment. Juarez Ramirez said he started feeling like himself on Saturday.

“I finally got into my shots,” Juarez Ramirez said. “This whole season, I haven’t been shooting at all. I finally did that today. I don’t think I was confident in myself. This season, I haven’t been myself. I’m finally starting to feel like myself. It’s better late than never.”

Being strong as a unit like the Bulldogs have been this season has much to do with culture, Juarez Ramirez said, and every wrestler has to work as hard as possible. 

“We all just push each other,” Juarez Ramirez said. “We all try to push each other to be better than what we already are. It’s just your environment, really. Everybody pushes everybody. Nobody is slacking off in the room, and everybody makes sure of that.”

Saturday’s field brought a tough collection of 16 schools from all four classes in the state. This includes Class 4 Hickman, which Vitale said is ranked in the top 35 in the nation. Hickman didn’t bring its full varsity roster to the tournament, but Mexico faced some in the finals.

Hernandez-Jarquin and Carr each lost but benefitted from wrestling kids at “levels I could jump to,” Vitale said. Despite those losses, Hernandez-Jarquin beat a district foe from Wright City and should be the No. 4 seed at districts, and Carr won a 3-1 decision in the semifinals against Fulton’s Andrew Wiesner to improve his record to 2-1 in matchups this season.

“(Carr) had a big win in the semis that took a little bit out of him before the finals,” Vitale said. “The semis match was huge for seeding implications. That should help us get the No. 2 seed in the district. For his district, that’s pretty big because you’ve got six of the top eight kids in the state in our district.”

Carr is ranked in the top five in the state and beat the No. 2 kid in the state on Saturday so he could score high if he qualifies for state. Hilderman is ranked fifth or sixth in the state, and Vitale said he has an opportunity to climb higher. Vitale said Walker “should be in the running to medal at state,” and Shramek lost to a tough opponent in the finals so he has a good chance to qualify as the district No. 2 seed. 

Brayden Arnold at 132, Jesus Garcia at 138, Kyle Lewis at 150 and Wilson at 165 are some others Vitale said could qualify for state and help out the team. They will have their shot when Mexico hosts districts on Feb. 20-21.

Vitale recalls his little brother picked up two upset victories at state, and several others won one or two matches in wrestlebacks to give Mexico the edge it needed for a state title in 2018. He said this year’s team has kids who can do that.

“For us to get a team trophy, we’re going to need as many guys as we can to show up, compete hard and win a match or two,” Vitale said. “Getting as many guys as we can is a big goal for us.”