McGee suffers pair of heartbreaking state losses

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MADISON — After dominating regional and sectional performance that both led to gold medals and a second consecutive trip to the state tournament, Glenwood City junior Mitchell McGee was eying the possibility of adding a state medal to this year’s impressive collection.

But, what McGee could not have foreseen was just how difficult a draw he would have at this year’s WIAA Individual State Wrestling Championships held this past Thursday through Saturday, February 22-24, at the Kohl Center in Madison.

In his first trip to state one year ago, McGee lost his one and only match. Unfortunately, he would once again go home without a win when he lost both of his Division 3, 150-pound matches to the eventual state champion and third-place finisher in the 81st annual event.

“He wrestled the state champion and the third-place finisher,”
stated Glenwood City head coach Shane Strong.

“He had a tough draw in the tournament and wrestled two of the top three guys in the state in his weight class,” he added.

As a regional and sectional champion, McGee was ranked fourth in his weight class coming into the state meet and began his second state tournament in Friday’s quarterfinal round. There he faced fifth-ranked Stone Pomery (48-3), a senior from Random Lake, who had advanced out of the previous evening’s single-elimination preliminary round with an 8 to 5 decision over Aquinas junior Trevor Anderson (26-14).

In their quarterfinal’s match, Pomery stuck first with a takedown  which was quickly followed by a three-point near fall. Just a half minute into the match and McGee found himself trailing 5-0. 

The Glenwood City wrestler worked an escape before the first period expired but still trailed by four points.

In the second period, McGee won the flip but deferred his choice until the final frame. Pomery went down to open the middle period and within 40 seconds had flipped his position and increased his advantage to 7-1.

Needing points, McGee chose to begin the third period in the neutral position. But, he was unable to break through Pomery’s defense and was rebuffed on his takedown attempts. The final period ended without a score and McGee walked off the mat dejected following the 7-1 setback.

Pomery went on to win his semifinal match versus top-ranked Syler Zdanczewicz (35-14), a Fennimore senior, 13-6 later that night and followed it up with a 5-4 win over second-seed Blake Carton of Shiocton in Saturday night’s championship to claim the state gold.

McGee had little time to dwell on the heartbreaking loss as he had to step back on the mat just a few hours later to battle fellow junior Tyson Imhoff (42-6) of Iowa-Grant/Highland in a consolation quarterfinal match. Imhoff had won his prelim match the day before, but like McGee, had come up short in the quarterfinals where he lost 5-3 to Zdanczewicz.

In their match, McGee and Imhoff battled to a scoreless draw after the one-minute first period ended. Imhoff took the down position to start the second period and midway through it scored a reversal against McGee and then used a cradle to rock McGee to his back for three near-fall points and a 5-0 lead. Neither wrestler scored in the final period as Imhoff advanced with the win and went on to finish third the following day while McGee’s season was suddenly over.

“He gave up one big move in each match otherwise he is right in those matches,” said Strong.

McGee finished an impressive season with a 43-9 record.

“Super proud of him,” said Strong. “He has one more shot at it and I know he will work at it hard to get back here and get to the podium!”