Historic McCook girl will always be first wrestling G.O.A.T.

McCook's Makayla Pate (left) gets ready to attack South Sioux City unbeaten wrestler Yohaly Quinones on Saturday at the CHI Health Center in Omaha.

R.B. Headley/McCook Gazette

OMAHA, Neb. — Red alert roared across Omaha because if anyone was spotted shaking hands with McCook’s Makayla Pate...

They were going down fast to the CHI Health Center wrestling mats.

Pate didn’t just beat three Omaha Class A school opponents on Friday at the CHI Health Center.

McCook sophomore Makayla Pate enters with some color for the girls' state championship match at Omaha's CHI Health Center Saturday night.

R.B. Headley/McCook Gazette

She PINNED all three although 39-3 Jada Parker from Bellevue West did lead deep into the final period of their 152-pound semifinal.

But with only seven seconds remaining, Parker simply couldn’t stand up against a girl who had wrestled all those goats and pounded fence posts.

Pate pinned Parker at 5:53 to make dad sound like a true prophet:

“When Makayla sets her mind to doing something, she gets it done,” he declared.

“Makayla Pate will go down in history as the first state medalist in school history as well as the first state finalist,” Bison coach Nick Umscheid declared. “She has come a long way from the beginning of the season considering she had never wrestled before.”

Pate reached Saturday night’s state title match where she earned a rematch with undefeated Yohaly Quinones from South Sioux City.

Quinones (25-0) had topped Pate during the A-3 district final at Gothenburg two weeks before.

On Saturday, the familiar foes worked through an entire period locked at 0-0.

Quinones suddenly took a 2-0 lead when suddenly it all came crashing down on Pate.

Her shoulder got caught and twisted under Quinones’ full force.

One could hear the shouts of pain even among this massive CHI Health Center throng.

Pate suffered a painful injury which ended this title match just barely into period two.

Yet barely 30 minutes later, Pate had returned to the floor and — despite wearing a large wrap around her injury — smiled as Quinones cried and savored being state wrestling champion.

The second-place finish will never drop Pate from first in McCook wrestling history. Plus it will give her plenty of motivation for next season’s title quest.

“No one could have predicted back in November that she would have ended up where she did,” Umscheid concluded.

“Not many wrestlers get to experience what she did at the state tournament and she is only a sophomore.”