At the NCAA tournament this year, Illinois’ Emory Parker was the lone guy to lose in the first round and come all the way back. Over the course of the tournament, he won seven straight matches to finish third after falling in his opening match to Chip Ness. Needless to say, Parker did it in the hardest way possible.

Well, it looks like we just got a new definition for “Ultimate Road Warrior.”

Patrick McKee and Jaden Abas just redefined what it means when it comes to navigating your way through the backside of a tournament to place third.

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Both guys went into last week’s Junior freestyle tournament in Fargo in the conversation of being contenders to win it all. At one point, each has graced the Fargo stage, with McKee coming away with the title at last year’s tournament. As it turned out, it wasn’t their time to shine under the biggest and brightest lights. However, they both showed out in what possibly may be the longest road ever taken in Fargo.

With a combined total of 24 matches wrestled, McKee and Abas individually went 11-1 to finish in third place in their respective weight classes. Their roads to the podium are pretty much identical. McKee lost in the round of 64 and Abas lost in the round of 64 after they both opened up the tournament with dominant wins. 

So we’ve established that they each had an overall record of 11-1 with the lone loss coming in the round of 64. Then what followed that loss was 10 straight wins in which they both recorded eight tech falls and just two regular decisions.

Abas & McKee’s Impressive Run