Brandon Hall was hoping to push more wrestlers to the Northeast Regional 3A tournament, but was happy to see Jasiah Pagan and Dante Morrison have a chance at competing for a spot in the PIAA state tournament this weekend.

Both wrestlers will be back on their home turf Friday and Saturday looking to secure one of the top five spots in their respective weight classes for a trip to the Giant Center next week.

They capped off the District 11 3A tournament in strong fashion, picking up wins in their consolation finals to each take third place.

Pagan (114) scraped by Northampton’s Ryan Marano with a 1-0 decision, while Morrison (HWT) had an easier time picking apart Pleasant Valley’s Andrew Mihalichko during a 13-1 major decision.

Pagan’s win over Marano gave him s taste of satisfaction after losing to him 8-7 in the quarterfinals and Liberty’s coaching staff made sure they let him know he was better than that result on Friday night.

“He was frustrated with himself after that loss and the coaching staff was equally frustrated with him,” said Hall. “We felt like he wasn’t as locked in on that match like he needs to be and he came back after that and wrestled solid on Saturday.”

Morrison had similar frustrations with himself after losing in the semifinals on Saturday morning to Freedom’s Dan Schiffert 3-2, only to pick himself back up and take third.

“He wasn’t on his offense against Schiffert and was incredibly frustrated with himself after the match,” said Hall. “He came back and wrestled tough after that and both kids did a great job finishing the tournament as high as they could after losing.”

Elijah Heimbach (107) was the only other Hurricane with a shot at advancing to regionals, but he lost his fifth place bout to Nazareth’s Derek Fulmer by tech fall, 22-7 in 4:52 to finish in sixth.

“It was really tough for Heimbach because he’s not advancing, but he wrestled incredibly tough in all his matches,” Hall said. “Prior to his last match, he wrestled really well. We had a bunch of other guys that competed really hard. We had growth marks for some of our younger guys like Heimbach, Ben Miller and Ben Reid, but I’m pleased with how we performed.”

Now the goal for Hall and company is to have Pagan and Morrison keep their season alive by another week with a top five finish at regionals so they can compete in Hershey.

“If you’re placing in District 11, you can compete with anyone,” said Hall. “Certainly, the heavyweight class is going to be tough with a couple kids coming in. Jasiah is going to have the same expectations he had this weekend and that’s getting to the semifinals and getting a high medal. He needed eight wins to get to a 100 career wins before districts and so he has that extra motivation now at regionals.”

Pagan enters regionals with 97 career wins under his belt.