Junior Sage Dixon (145) went into the District 6 tournament with a successful 17-13 regular season record but expectations were perhaps lower than other, higher seeded competitors in his weight class. After losing early, Dixon rose to the occasion and fought his way through several tough battles in the consolation bracket, earning fifth place.

Dixon had the best finish among the eight Golden Eagle district qualifiers.  Today he moves on to the PIAA AA Southwest Regional Tournament at Canon-McMillan High School in Canonsburg.

Tyrone Head Coach Mike Cherry felt the Eagles performed well as a team at districts but he would have liked to have more wrestlers make it to regionals.  In addition to Dixon, junior Devon Brown also made it to the district podium, Brown lost his fifth place bout, which left him one win short of qualifying for the regional tournament. Cherry was especially disappointed that junior Stevie Coyler was unable to wrestle on the second day of the tournament due to a medical disqualification.

But now all focus is on Dixon.

“Sage wrestled well at Districts,” said Tyrone Head Coach Mike Cherry, “It’s tough to come back through the consolation brackets and place. It takes lots of mental toughness, determination, and focus,” said Cherry.

Coach Cherry has set high goals for Dixon at the regional tournament.

“Ideally, we would like to see [Sage] win his weight class or place sixth or higher to make it to the state tournament,” said Cherry.

In the first round Dixon will face the first seeded wrestler from Somerset, Austin Hemminger (see full 145 lb bracket below).

Hemminger, a junior, has a 46-24 career record.  This is his third trip to regionals.  In 2014 he finished third at districts and fifth at regionals.  In 2015 he was the district five champion, but did not place at regionals.

“To win, he has to believe he can win. He will have to be aggressive and limit his mistakes,” said Cherry.

Dixon is bringing a positive attitude to tournament.

“I’m just gonna go hard and do my best. I wanna make my team proud,” said Dixon.

“I know he’ll do good. Hoping for at least 2-2 or better. I look at his brackets and I see some tough matches, but if he wrestles the way he has all year, he’ll be fine,” said teammate Jamal Hicks.

Cherry also issued a challenge to the rest of the team, “to the wrestlers who didn’t do as well as they wanted to this season, your training for next season can start today. There are lots of opportunities for strength training, technique, and tournament wrestling between now and next season,” said Cherry.

Prelims begin today at 3:00 pm.  Quarterfinals and first consolations are at 6:00 pm. The tournament continues tomorrow at 10:00 am with semifinals and 2nd-4th round consolations, championship and consolation finals begin at 5:00 pm.

To listen to the tournament click HERE.