Mexico girls wrestling has been building the foundation the first five years of its program.

Entering the sixth year, head coach Tony Senor said there has been “a dramatic increase” in the team’s numbers. Mexico expects a record number of at least 25 girls, including an all-time high 20 freshmen.

Senor said the class coming from middle school had about 12 girls and those girls convinced more to wrestle. Even though there will be plenty of freshmen, Senor doesn’t believe the he has to start teaching from the ground up.

“The nice thing is that most of those girls coming to me wrestled in middle school,” Senor said. “This is actually another first for our program – getting that many girls who know how to wrestle and who had experience on the mat in matches. Instead of having to teach, I’m able to get into more somewhat advanced things.”

There will be returners ready to lead that large freshmen group, including senior Alexus Johns. The 235-pound wrestler has qualified for state in each of her first three seasons and has taken home two medals, advancing to the championship match once.

Abby Bowen is Mexico’s other returning state qualifier and has advanced to state one other time in her career. The senior should be in the 130- to 140-pound range, according to Senor. He said Jazzmin Torres and Erika Pech are sophomores who show promise, and Nevaeh Varner is a senior he has an eye on.

Senor said another first will be the number of lightweights he will coach this season. He said the program’s first state medalist Katie Bowen earned her medal at 102 pounds and is looking forward to coaching more.

“We have four 100-pounders this year,” Senor said. “I’ve never had that in my life. Usually, coaches are scrounging, trying to recruit for boys and girls for the lowest weight classes. Those girls have been wrestling for a while now.”

With his first ever full lineup, Senor said Mexico’s final year in the North Central Missouri Conference should be an interesting one with Marshall and full lineups coming from Moberly and Kirksville.

Senor has other goals in mind along with a conference championship, including the program’s first state champion, beating the program record of three state qualifiers, multiple state medalists and multiple district champions.

“I’m really looking forward to growing this team, keeping them out and keeping them healthy,” Senor said. “I really want to push these freshmen along to become the next leaders.”