TOLONO – Anyone who was within the vicinity of Dakota Patton about 5:18 p.m. Saturday ended up hot and sweaty.

Patton, Bismarck-Henning's standout 189-pounder, had just finished off a Class 1A sectional crown with a pin, and he was in the business of giving hugs. Big, sweaty, bear hugs.

You remember that famous Oprah episode where she pointed at every member of her audience, shouting, "You get a car! You get a car! You get a car!" Well, that might as well have been Patton. "You get a hug! You get a hug! You get a hug!"

The guy was, well, let him describe it.

"I'm pumped," he said, beaming. "I'm just excited right now. I can't put it into words."

To understand how he felt, consider where he's been.

"Coming into this year," he said, "I felt I had a jinx on me. I could never get out of sectionals. (Every year) I felt I was going to make it out, and I just ... I don't know, it was just a jinx, I felt. This year, I felt like I prepared better, put all the hard work in that I could."

And now he has the sectional title to show for it.

Patton had a sensational weekend, starting with a tech fall in the quarterfinals. Then he faced Petersburg PORTA's Tyler Claussen, who had handed Patton one of his two defeats during the regular season.

"I wanted to get a little revenge back. I felt I owed it to him," Patton said. "I came out and proved it to him."

A 3-1 victory against Claussen assured a spot at Friday's state tournament at the Assembly Hall, but Patton wasn't done. He was intent on completely erasing that "jinx."

He blitzed Camp Point Central's Garrett Kestner in the final, pinning him in 3 minutes, 41 seconds after building a commanding lead.

"I had it in mind that if I win this, I get a first-round bye (at state) and I get to watch my kids wrestle," he said. "Coming in, I had never won a regional. I won it this year and thought, 'You know what, might as well stay on the roll, try to win the sectional, too.' Put the goals high."

It's hard to imagine an athlete having a better senior season. He was a News-Gazette All-Area selection in football in November and has followed up with a 45-2 campaign in wrestling.

"Everything is just coming together the way I dreamed it to be," Patton said. "It's just a dream to me right now."

Other highlights:

– Seven other area athletes won titles: Oakwood's Dacian Alvarez (112), LeRoy's Devin Bulington (119), LeRoy's Justin Meyers (125), LeRoy's Tyler Woolridge (130), Clinton's Cody Willis (152), Argenta-Oreana's Aaron Ford (215) and A-O's Trent Trudeau (heavyweight).

– LeRoy (six) and A-O (five) sent the most wrestlers to Champaign for the state tournament.