The toughest thing about winning silver is you have to lose to get it.
Wrestling for Team Canada, Cochrane Cowboys and St. Timothy School Thunder wrestler Connor McNeice grappled his way into the gold-medal match at the Pan-American Cadet wrestling championships in Guadalajara, Mexico, where he was caught and pinned by a U.S. wrestler.
“If you win the bronze medal, you always win your last match,” Cowboys and Team Canada wrestling coach Vern McNeice related. “If you win a silver medal, you always lose your last match. Connor was upset for a while. Then he put it in perspective. Silver at Pan-American championships. That’s going to create opportunities for him down the road. A great experience.”
Team Canada finished third overall at Pan-Ams.
Wrestling at 58 kilograms, 15-year-old Connor McNeice pinned a wrestler from Ecuador in the quarterfinal and out-pointed a Peruvian wrestler 11-1 in the semifinal to get to the gold-medal match.
“In the final against the American, he started out really well. He was moving really well. Connor went in for a shot, and the kid countered,” coach McNeice, and Connor’s dad, recounted. “I’ll be honest with you. This is international wrestling. He pulled something out of his hat I’d never seen before and Connor had never seen before. He got caught. That was that.
“It’s tough. Connor was really upset, frustrated. He really wanted to win that gold for Canada and for himself.”
Following the conclusion of Pan-Ams on July 5, the McNeices spent all of July 6 working their way home from the meet in Guadalajara, a journey that included a broken-down aircraft that had Canadian wrestlers scrambling to find alternative flights back to North America.
“We get to the airport and get on the plane and the plane breaks down,” coach McNeice recalled of his 24-hour travel day. “All of a sudden you have 200+ people trying to find flights out of Guadalajara. It was one of those epic ones spent in lineup after lineup at customs and security.
“So it’s good to be home.”
But they won’t be home for long. More national and international wrestling awaits Cochrane wrestlers.
Team Alberta, featuring Cowboys wrestlers, goes to the Ontario Cup on July 11 in Guelph followed by a national training camp in Toronto for 10 days. Connor McNeice goes from Toronto to Italy for a training camp before returning for the Western Canada Games Aug. 7-16 in Fort McMurray.
Then it’s off to Sarajevo for the World Cadet wrestling championships Aug. 25-30.
