West Perry sophomore Deven Jackson stood at the top of the podium after winning the Carlisle Christmas Classic wrestling tournament on Saturday. He was holding his bracket and a T-shirt already. He also ended up with a red balloon in his hands as the Mustangs cheering section started singing happy birthday.

Jackson turned 16 on the final day of the tournament.

Jackson looked like he wanted to shrink into a safe space until the voices died down, but instead stood tall knowing embarrassment was just one more challenge he had to conquer. The bacterial meningitis survivor is making a habit of it as he continues to defy the odds by ranking among the best 106-pounders in the state.

He can add another honor to the list: Outstanding Wrestler at the Carlisle tournament. Jackson won the award on the strength of a major decision, a technical fall and a thrilling 9-8 come-from-behind victory over Carlisle’s Taylor Hebenstreit in the finals.

“I’m never giving up,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re down 2-0 or 5-0, you can come back. You can easily get a 5-point move and end up tying the match.I knew I had to come back in the third period. I just ended up working really hard. You have to keep pushing the pace because he’s going to tire out.”

Hebenstreit scored the first points of that match and forced Jackson to wrestle from behind for most of it. Jackson trailed 8-6 in the final seconds of the third period when he locked Hebenstreit in a cradle to score two nearfall points and force overtime. Jackson said he saw the objective clear as day in that moment.

“It felt great,” he said. “I thought, ‘I’m tying this match up. We’re going into overtime.’ That’s what I was trying to do.”

He tried and succeeded, then busted loose in the ultimate tiebreaker period to score the 9-8 win.