Greatest Ever? Daton Fix reaches #1 ranking in the USA

By: Scott Emigh, Editor-in-Chief

Flowrestling released their first updated national rankings since the last high school season concluded. After removing graduates and factoring summer Freestyle and Greco-Roman competitions, several Oklahomans have moved up or entered the rankings for the first time. Sand Springs's Daton Fix is now the top wrestler in the nation at 120 pounds.

Fix spent the entirety of last season in the number two spot behind New Jersey's Nick Suriano, who will be headed to Penn State in the fall. Fix and Suriano have a split record with one win each. Suriano won the most recent match, which also happens to be the longest match ever. Hopefully we'll get to see a rematch one day at the collegiate level.

Speaking of college, Fix recently release his college shortlist. The soon-to-be senior is currently considering offers from Oklahoma State, North Carolina, Penn State, Ohio State, and Nebraska.

Here's a look at Fix's wrestling record.

Before ever reaching the High School level in 2013, Fix already had quite the impressive resume. In 2011 he won the USA Wrestling Kids Schoolboy National Championship in both Freestyle and Greco-Roman, amassing a 58-2 record for the year. His only losses were to Hunter Marko and Eric Hong, both of which he defeated in best-of-three rounds. Marko is now at the University of Minnesota and Hong will be at the University of Pennsylvania this fall.

In 2012 Fix placed Runner-Up in the USA Wrestling Kids Folkstyle Schoolboy Nationals after a 2-1 loss to Chad Red. Red finished his high school career ranked #1 and is headed to Nebraska this fall. That would be the only loss of the year for Fix, who went on to finish 79-1 with USAW National Championships in both Freestyle and Greco-Roman, as well as the Cliff Keen USAW Preseason National Middle School Championship. 

2013 was the summer before Fix's freshman year and he continued to rack up the hardware. He came in Runner-Up at the FILA Cadet Freestyle Nationals after a 13-2 loss to Spencer Lee who is a multi-time World Champion at both the Cadet and Junior levels. Fix got payback on Lee with a pair of victories in 2015. Fix won the USAW Cadet Nationals in both Freestyle and Greco Roman and finished the summer 37-2. His other loss was 15-11 to Kyle Bierdumpfel who is headed to Harvard this fall.

In the fall of 2013, Fix embarked on one of the most impressive high school careers in State history. He finished the season 33-0, an undefeated State Champion for CPHS.

Springboarding from the High School success, Fix traveled the world in the summer of 2014. He swept the USAW Cadet Folkstyle Nationals, then traveled to Brazil for the Pan American Championships, which he won in both Freestyle and Greco. Returning to America, Fix won the FILA Freestyle Nationals with a 1-1 decision over Suriano. At the Junior Freestyle Nationals in Fargo, North Dakota, Fix won yet another National Championship to earn his way to the World Championships in Slovakia, where he placed tenth. At the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China, Fix won a silver medal with his only loss being a 7-6 decision to Mukhambet Kuatbek of Kazakhstan. 

After returning to America, Fix accepted an invitation to the Who's #1 event where he got a rematch against Suriano. This time the Jersey wrestler came out on top with a 3-1 sudden victory decision after wrestling the longest match in history. The Who's #1 event had no overtime-limit and Suriano didn't get the victory till 32 minutes and 12 seconds in. Fix came in second at the Super 32 event that year with a 5-0 loss to Yianni Diakomihalis, who is currently ranked number one at 138 pounds.

In his sophomore year at Charles Page, Fix went undefeated once again with a 40-0 record for his second-straight 6A State Championship.

Summer of 2015 saw a Junior Folkstyle National Championship, a Junior Freestyle National Championship, a Cadet Freestyle National Championship, and an undefeated streak at the Junior Freestyle Duals where he helped Team Oklahoma to a National Title. At the United World of Wrestling Junior World Team Trials, Fix lost twice to Northwestern University freshman Stevan Micic, whom he had just defeated 10-0 for his Junior Freestyle Title a month earlier. Despite the losses to Micic, Fix didn't slow down in rebuilding a massive streak that didn't come to an end till the Cadet World Championships in Sarajevo, Bosnia where he took bronze.

Fix's junior year placed him in the most elite club of Sand Springs wrestlers as the first wrestler since, and only wrestler besides, David McGuire to win three State Championships. For the third straight year, he did it undefeated with a 45-0 record.

Since the school session ended, Fix's winning streak hasn't. Twenty-three straight summer wins brings his overall streak to 68-straight with a 46-0 record for 2016. He won the UWW Junior Freestyle Nationals and went undefeated with the Oklahoma Junior Freestyle Dual team. 

On the horizon for Fix now is a senior level competition in the Spanish Grand Prix, followed by the Fargo Nationals and the UWW World Championship in Macon, France.

Fix has already earned his way into the annals of Sand Springs, Oklahoma, and even USA wrestling history, and he hasn't even started his senior year of high school. The young stud claims the Twitter handle "Greatest Ever," and needless to say, all of Sand Springs is rooting for it to be true.

Overall, Oklahoma boasts a roster of thirteen nationally ranked high schoolers.

Canon Randall of Westmoore is ranked #14 in 106.
Colt Newton of Choctaw is ranked #16 in 113.
Paxton Rosen of Edmond North and Jet Taylor of Sallisaw are ranked #9 and #18 respectively in 120.
Roderick Mosley of Heritage Hall is ranked #16 in 132.
Kaden Gfeller of Heritage Hall and Tanner Litterell of Tuttle are ranked #2 and #13 respectively in 138.
Brik Filippo of Tuttle and Ty Lucas of Plainview are ranked #14 and #15 respectively in 145.
Jaryn Curry of Choctaw is ranked #15 in 152.
Dan Baker of Sulphure is ranked #16 in 182.
Brey Walker of Southmoore is ranked #2 in 285.

3X Sandite of the Week: Daton Fix

By: Scott Emigh, Editor-in-Chief

This week Sandite Pride would like to recognize Charles Page High School junior Daton Fix as Sandite of the Week for his outstanding performance at the United World of Wrestling Junior Freestyle National Championships in Las Vegas, Nevada. 

Fix traveled to Vegas this weekend to defend his 2015 UWW Junior National title, and defend it he did, defeating some of the top names in the game. The 126 pound grappler is ranked second in the nation in his weight class and is riding a 54-straight win streak with 21 pins and 20 tech falls, only winning two matches since October by less than eight points. 

The tournament featured some tough competition. Fix defeated University at Buffalo sophomore Kyle Akins 14-4, and two-time Illinois State Champion Kristopher Williams 10-0. In the semi-finals he scored a 10-0 tech fall over Austin Gomez, who is ranked fifth in the nation in 126 and just finished the high school season with a 40-1 record and a State Championship. The final match was Fix's closest battle since October, but he still came out with the win, defeating Gavin Teasdale 6-5 for the Championship. Teasdale is ranked first in the nation in class 113. 

This is Fix's third time being featured as Sandite of the Week. Some of Fix's titles include:

  • 2011 ASICS/USAW Kids Freestyle Schoolboy National Championship
  • 2012 ASICS/USAW Kids Folkstyle Schoolboy National Runner-Up
  • 2012 ASICS/USAW Schoolboy Freestyle National Champion
  • 2012 ASICS/USAW Schoolboy Greco-Roman National Champion
  • 2012 Cliff Keen USAW Preseason National Middle School Champion
  • 2013 FILA Cadet Nationals Freestyle Runner-Up
  • 2013 USAW Cadet Greco-Roman National Champion
  • 2013 USAW Cadet Freestyle National Champion
  • 2013 Kansas City Stampede Champion
  • 2014 OSSAA 6A State Champion
  • 2014 Cliff Keen USAW Cadet Folkstyle National Champion
  • 2014 Cadet Freestyle Pan American Champion
  • 2014 Cadet Greco-Roman Pan American Champion
  • 2014 ASICS/FILA Cadet National Freestyle Champion
  • 2014 USAW Junior Freestyle Dual National Champion (Team Oklahoma)
  • 2014 World Freestyle Championship 10th Place
  • 2014 Youth Olympic Games Freestyle Silver Medalist
  • 2014 Super 32 Runner-Up
  • 2014 Kansas City Stampede Champion
  • 2015 OSSAA 6A State Champion
  • 2015 Junior Folkstyle FloNationals Champion
  • 2015 UWW Junior Freestyle National Champion
  • 2015 UWW Cadet Freestyle National Champion
  • 2015 Junior Freestyle Dual National Champion (Team Oklahoma)
  • 2015 USAW Junior Freestyle National Champion
  • 2015 Cadet World Championship Bronze Medalist
  • 2015 Kansas City Stampede Champion
  • 2015 Geary Invitational Champion
  • 2016 OSSAA 6A State Champion

Sandite of the Week is a weekly recognition given to any one person with significant ties to the Sand Springs community who accomplishes remarkable achievements during the Sunday through Saturday week preceding the award. Prior achievements may be noted in the article, but do not bear direct influence on the selection committee which only considers prior week accomplishments. Candidates may be nominated by anyone by emailing SanditePrideNews@gmail.com. Bylaws prevent the giving of the award to anyone for two consecutive weeks, but any recipient may be nominated and awarded again in the future, so long as the weeks are not consecutive. Final selection is made by a majority vote of a three-person staff committee. 

Businesses or organizations seeking to sponsor the Sandite of the Week award may contact the above email for inquiries.

Daton Fix: Never Been Pinned

By: Scott Emigh, Editor-in-Chief

There's 10 days left till the Charles Page varsity wrestling team kicks off the season with a big win over Owasso. This season Sand Springs took runner-up in the Fast Pitch softball State Championship, and is soon to beat the snot out of Bixby for a State Championship in football. Once the hubbub surrounding the gridiron quiets down, it'll be all eyes on the mat as Sand Springs returns one of the greatest squads in school history. Our Minutemen are currently ranked #25 in the nation by flowrestling. 

For the next 10 days, we'll be counting down to the first dual and taking a look at our crowded roster of major talent. 

Daton Fix

  • Junior
  • 132 pounds

Daton Fix is not only the greatest wrestler in Sand Springs, Oklahoma, and the United States of America; he's also one of the best in the world. That's not my Sandite bias showing, he's got a bronze medal from Worlds and an Olympic silver medal to prove it. 

As a freshman, Fix went a perfect 33-0 and claimed his first OSSAA state title with a 8-2 decision over Garrett Rowe of Choctaw. 8-2 is about as near to a close-call as it gets for Fix. 

He continued that streak last season, taking first place in all six tournaments to finish 40-0 and claim a second OSSAA 6A State Championship, this time with an 11-3 major decision over Westmoore's Dalton Duffield at 120 lbs. 

Fix comes from a big family of outstanding wrestlers. His grand-father, Alan Karstetter Sr. coached at Charles Page for 24 years and is a 2002-inductee to the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. Derek Fix, Daton's father, racked up a winning 33-21 record at Oklahoma State and was a head wrestling coach then a collegiate referee for years before coming to Charles Page as an assistant wrestling coach. 

Fix's cousins, Jack and Cody Karstetter, are both Oklahoma State-placers. Jack is also a CPHS junior, and Cody is now a freshman at North Carolina where he has a 6-3 record this season and just placed runner-up in his second collegiate tournament. 

In a family like that, some might have a hard time living up to the hype. Fix, however, doesn't worry about anything but who's up next. 

The true gauge of Fix's potential lies outside the confines of Oklahoma high school kids. 

Before he ever even set foot on the high school mat, Fix was already a 7-time national champion. From 2011-2013, he went 174-5 and only ever lost to nationally ranked opponents. 

At the 2011 USAW Schoolboy Freestyle Duals, Fix was a leading member of Team Oklahoma when he was beaten 3-1 by Wisconsin's Hunter Marko. He quickly rebounded, however, beating Marko 6-3 and 6-0 in the next two matches. In that same tournament he was beaten 4-1 by Eric Hong of Pennsylvania, who he in turn defeated 4-2 and 3-0. 

In 2012, Fix would suffer only one loss, a narrow 2-1 decision to Chad Red at the 2012 ASICS Folkstyle Nationals. Fix went on to take 2nd in the tournament. Three years later, Red is currently ranked #1 in the nation at 132 lbs.

In 2013, Fix had his first meeting with Pennsylvania's Spencer Lee, and suffered his only tech fall to-date. Lee is currently ranked #1 in the nation at 120. Later that year Fix would once again meet up with Eric Hong, and this time it was clear who the better wrestler was, as Fix deal him a 16-5 tech fall at the USAW Cadet Folkstyle Nationals. Fix claimed his first continental titles that year, taking gold in both freestyle and Greco at the Pan-American games in Colombia. 

In 2014, Fix claimed his eighth national championship with a 4-2 overtime win against Utah's Taylor LaMont at the USAW Cadet Folkstyle Nationals. From there he joined team USA at the Cadet Pan-American Championships in Brazil where he claimed continental titles in both Freestyle and Greco. He racked up two more national championships at ASICS and USAW before traveling to Slovakia for the World Championships where he took 10th. At ASICS, he narrowly overcame Nick Suriano, the current #1 wrestler at 126 lbs, from New Jersey, in a 1-1 decision that Fix was awarded due to scoring the last point. 

At the 2014 Youth Olympic games in Nanjing, China, Fix defeated Macedonian Elmedin Sejfulau and Yemenite Ebrahim Abdullah Ali Al-Shebami by tech fall, and South Africa's Reynhardt Louw 6-1 before falling in the final match to Mukhambet Kuatbek of Kazakhstan in a narrow 7-6 decision. Fix had to settle for silver, but he was that much closer to his long-term goal of becoming an Olympic gold-medalist. 

Upon his return to the United States, Fix challenged Nick Suriano to a rematch at the Who's #1 event at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. Once again, the two were tied 1-1 as the third period expired. Unlike FILA, the Who's #1 event has no limit to overtime, setting up Fix and Suriano for an epic battle that lasted 32:12 into overtime and set the record for longest match ever recorded. It was Suriano that came out on top however, with a 3-1 sudden victory takedown. 

2015 has been just as big of a year for the young stud. He claimed his 11th national title at the Flonationals Junior Folkstyle tournament in April where he once against narrowly overcame Taylor LaMont in the semi-finals. His final opponent was Yianni Diakomihalis, who is currently #3 at 132lbs. Diakomihalis overcame Fix 5-0 last year at the Super 32 tournament in Greensboro, NC, but this time Fix got the edge with a 3-1 OT decision.

He won a 12th national title at the ASICS/UWW Junior Freestyle Nationals with a 10-0 tech fall over Chicago's Stevan Micic. Then, at the Cadet Freestyle Nationals he went best-of-three against Spencer Lee.  This time the #1 wrestler in the country  was upset and Fix brought home a 13th national title with a 9-6 decision over the Pennsylvanian. 

Fix, in turn, would be upset in his next matches at the Junior World Team Trials. In another best-of-three performance, this time Stevan Micic brought payback with 7-4 and 10-4 decisions bringing Fix's 69-straight win-streak to an end.

The losses were only a slight hiccup in otherwise incredible year.

After being upset by Micic, Fix recorded 12-straight tech falls. Six of them came at the Junior National Duals as Fix teamed up with recent CPHS graduates Cody Karstetter and Kyler Childers on Team Oklahoma to take a dual national title. The next six were at the USAW Junior Freestyle National Championships as he outscored opponents 66-5 to claim a fifteenth national title.

From there it was once again time to tread international waters. 

At the Cadet World Championships in Sarajevo, Bosnia, Fix went 4-1 for a third place finish and his first World Championship bronze medal. He defeated Armenian Vazgen Tevanyan by 7-1 decision, then tech fell Georgia's Vano Godelashvili 12-0 in 2:47. In the quarterfinals he was narrowly defeated 3-2 by Russia's Abasgadzhi Magomedov, but he rebounded with a 10-0 tech fall against Moldova's Nicolai Grahmez in an incredible 1:46. In the third place match he had no difficulty overcoming Abbos Rakhmonov of Uzbekistan 17-2 in 3:34 to wrap up another incredible international performance. 

Returning to America for the prestigious Super 32, Fix settled for 4th place after being defeated by Luke Karam and Vito Arujau, bringing his 2015 non-scholastic record to 68-5. 

Needless to say, Fix is a sure-win for the 2016 State Championship, and will likely go undefeated this season as-well. He's the kind of guy who shoots for the stars and grabs the moon in the process. While most of the competitors in this state are aiming for state championships, his heart is set on the Olympics, and the rest of Sand Springs is there with him. Earlier this summer, a GoFundMe campaign raised more than $5000 to help send him across the world and local company Inkwell Printing sold Daton Fix t-shirts to help raise funds for him. 

Titles

  • 2011 Southern Plains Schoolboy Greco Regional Champion
  • 2011 Southern Plains Schoolboy Freestyle Regional Champion
  • 2011 ASICS/USAW Schoolboy Freestyle National Champion
  • 2011 ASICS/USAW Schoolboy Greco National Champion
  • 2012 ASICS/USAW Schoolboy Folkstyle National Runner-Up
  • 2012 Southern Plains Schoolboy Greco Regional Champion
  • 2012 Southern Plains Schoolboy Freestyle Regional Champion
  • 2012 Northern Plains Schoolboy Freestyle Regional Champion
  • 2012 ASICS/USAW Schoolboy Freestyle National Champion
  • 2012 ASICS/USAW Schoolboy Greco National Champion
  • 2012 Cliff Keen USAW Preseason Middle School National Champion
  • 2013 USAOK Junior High Folkstyle Champion
  • 2013 FILA Cadet Freestyle National Runner-Up
  • 2013 Southern Plains Cadet Greco Regional Champion
  • 2013 Southern Plains Cadet Freestyle Regional Champion
  • 2013 USAW Cadet Greco National Champion
  • 2013 USAW Cadet Freestyle National Champion
  • 2013 Perry Tournament Champion
  • 2013 Kansas City Stampede Champion
  • 2014 Jay Hancock Invitational Champion
  • 2014 OSSAA 6A East Regional Champion
  • 2014 OSSAA 6A State Champion
  • 2014 Cliff Keen USAW Cadet Folkstyle National Champion
  • 2014 Cadet Freestyle Pan-American Champion
  • 2014 Cadet Greco Pan-American Champion
  • 2014 Oklahoma Cadet Freestyle State Champion
  • 2014 Oklahoma Cadet Greco State Champion
  • 2014 ASICS/FILA Cadet Freestyle National Champion
  • 2014 Southern Plains Cadet Freestyle Regional Champion
  • 2014 Southern Plains Cadet Greco Regional Champion
  • 2014 USAW Junior Freestyle Duals National Champion (Team Oklahoma)
  • 2014 Youth Olympics Freestyle Silver Medalist
  • 2014 Super 32 Runner-Up
  • 2014 Oklahoma Open Champion
  • 2014 Perry Tournament Champion
  • 2014 Kansas City Stampede Champion
  • 2015 Jerry Billings Tournament Champion
  • 2015 Jay Hancock Memorial Champion
  • 2015 OSSAA 6A East Regional Champion
  • 2015 OSSAA 6A State Champion
  • 2015 Junior Folkstyle FloNationals Champion
  • 2015 OKUSA Junior Freestyle National Team Qualifier
  • 2015 Sand Springs Junior Greco Champion
  • 2015 Sand Springs Junior Freestyle Champion
  • 2015 UWW Junior Freestyle National Champion
  • 2015 OKUSA Junior Freestyle State Champion
  • 2015 UWW Cadet Freestyle National Champion
  • 2015 Junior Freestyle National Dual Champion (Team Oklahoma)
  • 2015 USAW Junior Freestyle National Champion
  • 2015 Cadet World Championship Bronze Medalist