Grappling with resolve

It was hard for senior South Milwaukee 285-pound wrestler Bill Mitchell to put things in perspective after Superior's unbeaten Nikola Bogojevic hit him with a strong upper-body throw and pinned him at 4:37 in the WIAA state finals Saturday night at the Kohl Center in Madison.

In the lower concourse afterwards, his coaches talked to him, helped him with his sweats and kept telling him what a great job he did in just barely a third a of a season after recovering from a broken wrist suffered at the start of the fall football season.

But he wasn't thinking about his wrist, which is still healing, and he wasn't thinking about the fact that Bogojevic had nearly three times the mat experience that he had this winter.

Mitchell just wanted a state championship.

"It was just a mistake, that's all," said Rocket coach Joel Shilling. "Given all that he has had to overcome, it was a fantastic effort. He's been working everyday since he got out of that cast (last month). And even when he was hurt, he was still in the (room) with us."

Mitchell (18-1) was fourth in last year's state tournament and Shilling says he intends to continue wrestling in college.

"I made sure to tell him that this wasn't his last match, but hopefully just the start of a road towards a whole bunch of successful matches," Shilling said.

Mitchell had beaten Lake Geneva Badger (3-0 decision), Kettle Moraine (pin 1:36) and Wausau West (4-2 OT) opponents to earn his spot in the finals.

He had just earned an escape at the start of the third period in the finals to tie the match at 1-1 when Bogojevic (52-0) hit him with the throw.

"That kid was in top form," said Shilling, "while we barely had a quarter of a season under our belts. Just a fantastic effort. I can't say enough about his (Mitchell's) work ethic, but there are a lot of wrestlers out here ending things in heartbreak."

"He'll learn from it."