Colfax-Mingo’s McGill dominates on way to district title

PLEASANTVILLE — John McGill has been on a mission all season long.

After earning his first state medal last season, the only thing left for McGill in his final prep year is to climb to the very top of the podium.

Nothing McGill did on Saturday changed his goals or plans. And another dominant day on the mat pushed him to his third state tournament.

McGill was the only Tigerhawk to clinch a state berth on Saturday as Colfax-Mingo’s eight wrestlers scored 64 points at the Class 1A District 8 tournament.

West Branch’s 13 wrestlers scored 206 points to win the district championship.

Host Pleasantville was second with 152 and the rest of the top five was North Mahaska (124), Baxter (105) and Iowa City Regina (82.5).

Colfax-Mingo finished sixth and the remaining field included Sigourney-Keota (62), English Valleys/Tri-County (46), Van Buren (41), Pekin (29) and Lone Tree (18).

McGill, who is ranked second at 165 pounds, improved to 40-1 on the season with a 2-0 day. He earned the top seed in the state tournament and will have a first-round bye.

After a first-round bye on Saturday, he opened the tournament with a pin and then defeated sixth-ranked Cooper Gates of West Branch, 11-2, in the finals.

McGill’s only loss was a 7-6 decision early in the season. He’s now won 35 straight matches and scored bonus points in 29 of them — not including the forfeits.

The win in the finals Saturday was the 164th victory of McGill’s career. He finished sixth last year at 160.

Half of the Tigerhawks’ eight wrestlers finished in the top four. The top two finishers in each weight class in each 1A district advanced to state.

Cason Fitch (120) and Teagan Dybevik (285) went a combined 6-2 with six pins but each took third in their weights.

Fitch (37-7) was 3-1 with three pins. But he lost 10-8 in the semifinals to No. 10 Lincoln Edwards (26-5) of West Branch and couldn’t get a true-second wrestle back after Edwards fell to No. 8 Ayden Beck of Baxter in the finals.

Dybevik (23-10) finished 3-1 with three first-period pins. Those three matches lasted all of 1 minute, 44 seconds.

But Dybevik fell short of a state berth after losing to No. 12 Aiden McFadden (40-7) of Baxter in the semifinals. He didn’t get a chance to wrestle back after McFadden fell to No. 5 Logan Wright of West Branch in the finals.

The Tigerhawks’ next best finisher was Donnie Baucom, who was fourth at 215. He finished 1-2 with one pin.

The other four Colfax-Mingo wrestlers were James Cherveny (132), Kyle Wood (150), Isaiah Baucom (175) and Allan Bregar (190).

Isaiah Baucom went 1-2, while Cherveny and Bregar were 0-2 and Wood finished 0-1.

The Tigerhawks were open at 106, 113, 126, 138, 144 and 157.

McGill begins 1A competition at the Iowa High School State Wrestling Championships at 6 p.m. on Wednesday at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.