Mexico lost at home to Father Tolton on Monday but are gaining as well.

Boston Davolt returned from injury, losing 10-7 in his singles match, and Quaid Grubb and Brixton Goerne won their doubles match 10-4 in the 7-2 loss for Mexico.

Declan Gleeson gave the Bulldogs (3-9) their other win against Tolton (11-2) as he won his singles match 10-7. Goerne ended up losing his singles match 10-7.

“Father Tolton is a well-coached team and today it showed,” head coach Tony Senor said. “We are always competitive with them and some of the matches were closer than the final scores reflect. It was nice to see Boston Davolt back in action. He has been out with an injury, and we have been trying to get him back in the lineup when he is healthy.”

Mexico (1-3 NCMC) played a North Central Missouri Conference and district matchup at Fulton (0-12, 0-4 NCMC) on Tuesday before hosting Columbia Independent (2-8) at 4:30 p.m. Thursday for Senior Night.

Missouri Military Academy excited after defeating Troy Buchanan 8-1

Missouri Military Academy feels good about its district chances this year.

The Colonels didn’t face a Class 2 District 4 opponent on Monday but defeated Troy-Buchanan 8-1 on the road to win against a team that has defeated all but one of MMA’s district opponents.

“This was a very important match for us as TBHS is the only common opponent shared by all teams in our new district,in Class 2,” head coach Brad Smith said. “Thanks to this win, we are even more excited about our matches in these upcoming weeks.”

The only MMA loss was by Francisco De La Maza in singles, but that was a close 8-6 loss to the Class Trojans (5-12). 

The Colonel victories included Gorka Yarte 8-4 in singles, Patricio Bravo Knobloch 8-6 in singles, Samuel Way 8-6 in singles, Nathan Dempsey 8-0 in singles, Ernesto De La Maza 8-1 in singles, Yarte and Francisco De La Maza 8-6 in doubles, Bravo Knobloch and Way 8-2 in doubles, and Dempsey and Ernesto De La Maza 8-0 in doubles.

MMA (4-1) plays Moberly (7-2) at 4 p.m. today.

MMA's Dempsey ties wins record at Helias Invitational

Missouri Military Academy was strong as a team on Tuesday, April 18 in Jefferson City, but one cadet stood alone.

The Colonels finished second at the Helias Invitational round robin tournament, with eight individual finishes in the top four in their respective pools. Junior Nathan Dempsey finished third in doubles with Samuel Way but also earned his 48th career varsity win, tying the school record that has stood since 1992.

Head coach Brad Smith said he calls the school’s wins record a race as Dempsey — after earning 28 wins last year — isn’t the only cadet with a shot of obtaining it before the end of their Colonel career. Way and Gorka Yarte also are good candidates for the record as they have a respective 46 and 40 career wins as of Tuesday.

“All three of the players could be the record holder by the end of the season,” Smith said. “Another fun fact is that Cadet Yarte is a senior and Cadets Dempsey and Way are juniors. With COVID canceling the 2020 spring season, all three have only played three seasons. I am incredibly proud to coach all three of these cadets and I look forward to the end of the season to see where they all will end up. But, there will absolutely be a new record holder at the end of this season.”

Medalists were players who earned either first or second place. In singles, MMA had one first-place finish by Francisco De La Maza, two second-places by Yarte and Luke Ott and one fourth place by Patricio Bravo Knobloch. The Colonels had a second-place finish by Ernesto De La Maza and Temuulen Manlai and three third-places in doubles by the pairs of Way and Dempsey, Marco Afane and Zijie Zhou and Maximo Castillo and Banuelos Banuelos.

Mexico’s top players shine in 6-3 loss at Kirksville

Mexico’s top two players played like the top two on Friday night.

In colder and windy conditions, the Bulldogs lost at North Central Missouri Conference foe Kirksville 6-3, winning two of their matches via tiebreakers.

No. 1 Brendan McKeown won both tiebreaker matches, coming back from a 5-2 deficit in singles to win 11-10 and then he won by the same score in doubles with partner and team No. 2 Declan Gleeson. Gleeson won his singles match 10-4.

“Although we didn't win against Kirkville (6-3, 3-1 NCMC), we all played well considering the wind and temperature,” head coach Tony Senor said. “Brendan and Declan won their doubles match in Tiebreaker, Declan beat his No. 2 10-4 where we had troubles with him last season. Playing Kirksville will pay off with a potential sectional matchup to make it to the MSHSAA state tournament.”

Other Bulldogs (3-8, 1-3 NCMC) played to close margins as Camden Williams lost singles 10-8, Quaid Grubb lost singles 10-7 and Brixton Goerne lost singles 10-6.