Jayci Shelton is the one to beat at 155 pounds.

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The Centralia freshman proved that yet again on Saturday at the Class 1 District 2 tournament at St. Charles West when she pinned three of her opponents and beat another via 16-0 technical fall to become Centralia’s first girl district champion. Shelton has remained undefeated and has had the top ranking at her weight class for a while and others will need to continue chasing her at state, starting Feb. 21 at Mizzou Arena in Columbia.

Shelton said she has a large amount of wrestling experience since she was five years old and all of those years have contained various qualities of hardware at tournaments across the country, including the Wonder Woman tournament that Shelton won without much issue earlier this season. She now has the chance to compete at a place she hasn’t before.

“It’s pretty cool and am excited to go,” Shelton said. “It’s just being more experienced, having the coaches’ help that I do, being able to go to the places that I go and having the experiences I get to have. That’s probably one of the biggest reasons (I made it here).”

Shelton reached a high point with the Wonder Woman tournament championship in the middle of the season and now has another half of high school experience to reflect on and use to her benefit.

“Being able to control your emotions throughout the match, being able to wait like being patient on my shots and being patient when I score is another big thing,” Shelton said.

Head coach Tyler Forsee could be heard before Shelton’s first-place match with Southern Boone’s returning state medalist Addy Pasley saying “one point at a time.” He said Shelton is a rare talent that is hard to beat, but Shelton still needs to make opponents earn it.

“She’s good enough that it’s going to take somebody to catch her or go big,” Forsee said. “I don’t want her to give them that opportunity so just piece them up one point at a time. She did a good job at showcasing what she could do.”

“I thought that my last match was a good match because she controlled herself really well, and she didn’t give anything up,” Shelton said. “She protected her legs well so its shots were hard to get to.”

Forsee said Shelton’s 16-0 technical fall victory over Warrenton’s Allison Vacek, who finished fourth to earn a trip to state, in the semifinals demonstrated this steady strategy perfectly. 

Vacek qualified for state last season and is a 30-match winner this season and the one Shelton pinned in first-period in the previous round, Hannibal’s Sidney Zimmerman also had won at least 30 matches this season.

“It’s just go wrestle and figure out from there, because at this point in time, they’re all going to be good,” Forsee said. 

Forsee said the other Centralia girls went out and wrestled well at districts, especially first-year wrestler Lyla Mattison and former state qualifier Madie Shelton. He said Mattison had a tough draw in her first match at 170 pounds against eventual district champion Ellyse Lorenson, of Palmyra and Shelton was one away but just made a mistake against Wright City’s Sadie Sehnert. Overall, it shows the better quality and depth of girls wrestling.

“Lyla Mattison went 0-2, but she did a great job of coming forward and giving herself a great chance to win. She got significantly better and was way undersized for her weight class,” Forsee said. “The one that really stings is Madie Shelton not being able to make it. She was up 5-0, gave up a reversal and the girl was able to get her to her back really quick. She’s got wins over girls that just punched their ticket and made it so it comes down to you’ve got to be ready to perform each and every match.”

Like her teammates, Shelton said she wants to represent Centralia well at state and will take her preparation seriously.

“Representing your team well is one of the big parts,” Shelton said. “You want people to know who you are and who you represent — the name that’s on your singlet. It’s just taking it one match at a time and not thinking of matches ahead of me, knowing they’re all going to be good and knowing that I’m not going to have a walkthrough to the finals. I’m going to have to train hard. Showing up to practice and wanting to be there is a big thing.”