Liberty’s wrestling team got what they hoped for at the District 11 3A tournament over the weekend.

The Hurricanes advanced six wrestlers to the Northeast Regional 3A tournament back at Memorial Gymnasium this weekend, as they hope to continue their season another week en route to Hershey.

Javien Deleon led Liberty’s charge into a sixth-place team finish with a silver medal, following a 10-2 loss to Easton’s Braxton Appello in the 113-pound championship.

Appello broke the match open in the first period after scoring a takedown and registering three near-fall points to build a 5-0 lead he wouldn’t look back on.

Despite the loss, Deleon proved his worth in the 113-pound bracket, something that head coach Brandon Hall hoped would be the case coming into the tournament.

“We told Javien early on this year that he’s a district finalist and that he has to train like that,” Hall said. “I don’t think he really believed that, but this is proof of what he’s capable of.”

With regionals on tap this weekend, Hall hopes that Deleon’s confidence can help grow heading into regionals.

“He’s young and I hope he gets confidence from this,” said Hall. “He’s got a great spirit and you just hope he can mature from this experience and get back at it next week.”

Liberty’s qualifying contingent was encouraging for Hall, as he saw Ansar Niazi (120, fifth), Christian Reid (160, fourth), Jason Rezac (145, third), Kevin Hennessy (182, fourth) and Zaire Mitchell (220, fifth) all come home with medals and qualifying stakes to week two of the postseason.

“I thought we wrestled well and you always want more guys to wrestle well on the second day,” said Hall. “Sending six guys through is a positive and we’re really happy about that. This is something we talked about all year that we’re not going to let other people define who we are and I think some of that is coming to fruition.”