For the Mexico boys and girls wrestlers, the season has taken a toll.

Mexico at Centralia dual meet Photo Gallery

Each team is dealing with injuries with districts coming ever so closer on Jan. 17-18. At a tri meet Thursday in Centralia, the boys lost to Class 1 No. 1 ranked Centralia 63-9 and defeated Eldon 35-21 while the girls lost 24-18 to Eldon and defeated Centralia by tiebreaker at 24.

Boys head coach Gayle Adams said the team was without its typical wrestlers at the weight classes of 113, 126, 150, 157 and 175. He said there is no reason to worry as they all should be ready by districts. Districts are a big reason why some Bulldogs didn’t wrestle on Thursday.

“There’s no reason to risk it right now. It’s just some injuries,” Adams said. “We want to make sure our kids are healthy for their (state) run. We don’t want to work all season and then ruin it a few days before the district tournament.

“We got to look at small battles. Dalton Arndt had a nice big win — gutted out a nice win, wrestled six minutes. Grant (Van Horn) wrestled the No. 1 kid in the state tonight and lost 7-5. There’s little things that we got to get our offense going.”

Van Horn is coming off a fourth-place state medal in the 132-pound class and wrestled two 138 matches on Thursday. He dominated Eldon’s Maddox Berlener with a 15-0 technical fall victory before just losing 7-5 to Centralia’s Rex Bryson — a No. 1 ranked Class 1 wrestler.

In the closing seconds of the third period, Van Horn managed to earn two more points to make it 6-5 only for Bryson to escape further damage. Despite that, Adams had a bold prediction for his sophomore.

“I feel Grant Van Horn is the best kid in Class 2 138. I feel he’s a state champ,” Adams said. “We’re going to prove it (at state). I promise you.

“We’re going to push the pace earlier. We’re going to be in (an opponent’s) face a little bit earlier. Then he’s going to turn up the pressure and he’s going to win it.”

In the Eldon dual, Van Horn followed Gavin Martin, who pinned his opponent, and then Grant Walker earned the pinfall victory in the third period to lead the Bulldogs to the victory.

Centralia proved why they were a reigning state runner-up in Class 1 by winning the first eight matches against Mexico on the mat. Then Arndt stepped up to outlast Payton Mabrey for the 8-5 decision.

“What I liked about it is he trusted his conditioning and stuck to what was solid,” Adams said. “He knew he didn’t have to force anything. That kid had to come to him so he wrestled smart.”

As for the Lady Bulldogs, the only one who competed on the mat was Abby Bowen as Mexico, Centralia and Eldon had several open spots. Bowen, though, grappled with Eldon’s Adysson Gerber and Centralia’s Madie Shelton. She was pinned in the third period against Gerber and then was pinned in the second period against Shelton.

After Mexico hosted a meet on the following Saturday, the Bulldogs look forward to hosting the district meet.

Girls head coach Tony Senor said Bowen along with the rest of the team has been dealing with injuries. Alexus Johns was unavailable Thursday due to an injury but will be ready by districts on Jan. 10-11 at North Point in Wentzville.

“We have been battling some injuries and skin issues on the team,” Senor said. “Abby was fully cleared (Thursday) to wrestle and this was the first time she wrestled this week. She wrestled tough considering that.”