MHS Academic Team Wraps Up Their Historic Season
By: Dale Schenewerk
The Mexico HS Academic Team just wrapped up their historic season in Chicago on Sunday, June 11th. Let’s recap the historical performance:
The season began with the Bulldogs winning their inaugural home fall tournament, the Bulldog Fall Fiesta, by going 10 - 0 to clear the field. The tournament served as a harbinger of the success to come the rest of the season. The Bulldogs followed that tournament up by going to Mizzou for the annual Mizzou Fall Academic Tournament, where they won their second consecutive tournament winning a disadvantaged final over Parkway West. The team continued its hot streak throughout the rest of the first semester schedule and at the start of the second semester. While they didn't win any more tournaments in that stretch, they won trophies for
2nd - 4th for almost every tournament. The Bulldogs won their 3rd tournament of the year when they went to Palmyra in February. That tournament win was made sweeter by the fact that Palmyra ended Mexico's season the year before with a tough overtime win. The Bulldogs also showed their national prominence by taking down a nationally ranked Illinois team, Piasa, three times to win the tournament with an undefeated 12 - 0 record.
After a strong 3rd place finish at the 25th iteration of WUHSAC, the Bulldogs made school history yet again when they went to Kirksville and took home the first NCMC Conference title in school history. To do this, they beat Moberly 440-240, Kirksville 570-160, Hannibal
640 - 50 and Fulton 740 - 30. The Bulldogs took 2nd in their 7th annual spring tournament, the Bulldog Regional Interscholastic Challenge.
Then came the postseason, where the Bulldogs went undefeated to win the second District title in school history. They beat Hannibal, Helias and Moberly in the morning rounds and then took down Kirksville and Moberly in the afternoon to win the Class 5 District 4 title. That win led them to a Quarterfinal matchup at Priory in St. Louis. Mexico lost game 1 of a best of 3 matchup against Priory 440 - 290. Despite trailing at the half in games 2 and 3... the Bulldogs pulled out the final two games by scores of 400 - 310 and 360 - 300 to move on to the State Tournament for the first time in school history. At the state tournament, Mexico lost to Sullivan and Ladue before beating seven-time state champion Savannah twice to take 3rd place at State.
Finally, the Bulldogs entered the PACE NSC in Chicago ranked #41 in the nation. The Bulldogs left nationals finishing 32nd out of 72 teams, going 7 - 9 over the weekend. More impressively, Mexico took home the 3rd place finish out of all small schools in the tournament. Half of the roster at nationals were sophomores.
Along with a strong team performance, the Bulldogs saw sophomore Camden Williams stand out this season. Among his honors are being top scorer at all but two tournaments this season, being selected to the Missouri A All-Star team (they play June 17 - 18), being the second top scorer at nationals, making the national's All-Star team and being named the top Rising Star in the nation.
Along with Camden, the Bulldogs historic season was accomplished with the help of: seniors Jamison Jeffries (captain) and Declan Gleeson, juniors Christian Frederickson and Liam Hoyle, sophomores Carter Blackburn, Dylan Reid, Lucy Gleeson and Drake Holloway, and freshmen Meredith Harter, Alexia Femrite, Jude Yancey, Zellen Duncan, AJ Leon and Brandon Ballard.
The Bulldogs enter next season returning most players, which sets them up to continue to write their name in the school record books.