Mexico will be hosting boys wrestling districts near the end of the month but had one more chance for regular season action on home mats.

The Bulldogs closed January by winning all five of their duals on Saturday at the Mexico Duals Tournament on Gary Filbert Court, beating Monett 51-22, Sullivan 47-34, district foe Boonville 59-21, Macon 62-9 and district foe Orchard Farm 78-6. Six seniors were honored between their final regular season matches at home, including Grant Walker before picking up his 100th career win.

Head coach Jake Vitale said the team has been focusing on an aspect that will help them during the approaching playoff season. 

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“We’ve been watching a lot of film this last week about wrestling through positions when you’re in tight spots instead of just turning down and giving up points,” Vitale said. “Fight through and continue to wrestle. They had a few times where they really fought hard, continued to wrestle and didn’t give up points.”

Vitale said Walker wrestled hard all day by going 4-1 but had a down match in his only loss to Boonville where he gave up a near fall to account for most of his opponent’s points. He said Walker did well to bounce off that loss to earn a milestone victory against Macon. 

“It was definitely a winnable match, but he bounced back tough,” Vitale said. “The rest of the day, he manhandled everyone.”

Walker said it feels great to accomplish an uncommon thing so close to the end of the season and on Senior Day. After he, Jesus Garcia, Mac Haag, Evan Wilson, Kyle Lewis and Isai Hernandez-Jarquin were recognized for their dedication to the program, Walker said the day became even more memorable in a way that stood out in his five-year wrestling career.

“My coaching,” Walker said about how he got to 100 career wins. “They’ve made me improve over every single technique that I have. It’s a lot of work like year-round wrestling — seven days a week sometimes. Everything that you do matters.”

Garcia picked up three wins, Hernandez-Jarquin and Lewis had two wins and Haag had one win. Walker said starting as a freshman in the Mexico wrestling program has changed him a lot.

“The improvement I made from freshman year — that was my second year of wrestling — I can see a lot in just the way I wrestle,” Walker said. 

Those who went undefeated included Trevor Cole, Logan Hilderman, Kyler Carr and Travis Shramek going 5-0 and Carlos Juarez Ramirez going 4-0. Brenden Wilson and Evan Blair each went 4-1. 

Vitale said Cole picked up a district victory against his Orchard Farm opponent Milo Smith. He said they met in the finals at the St. Charles Invitational this season, and Smith is ranked in the state’s top 10.

“Trevor’s pinned him both times, so that’s a good win for Trevor,” Vitale said. “For districts, it will be us as the No. 1 seed and probably Orchard Farm as the No. 2 seed at 106 (pounds). That’s nice to get that extra win over him.”

Vitale said Carr went 5-0 despite wrestling a tough kid from Macon, whose head coach is Mexico’s middle school coach over the last few years Latimer Slater. Macon bumped its 150-pounder up to Carr’s weight class at 157, and Vitale said Carr had to “dig deep” and “chase him down toward the end” for the winning takedown. 

Hilderman beat two tough opponents from Sullivan and Macon. Vitale said Hilderman lost to the Sullivan kid last year and the Macon kid is a senior state medalist, but he beat both of them on Saturday.

Shramek is dealing with sickness to the point that Vitale said he wasn’t sure if he would wrestle on Saturday. The heavyweight won all five of his matches.

“There was a lot of heart there,” Vitale said. “They all wrestled pretty tough today.”

Vitale said there is more work to do if Mexico, who he said is ranked sixth or seventh in Class 2.

“Our ultimate goal is to get a team state trophy,” Vitale said. “Right now, we’re on the outside looking in. We’re within striking distance of being up there with third and fourth.”