From what Doug Seskey's boxer told him, the defending U.S. women's national champion at 176 pounds dropped out, leaving two to compete tonight for the 2006 amateur title in that category.

And one of them is Seskey's boxer: Tika Hemingway of the Hill District.

With reigning champ Tyler Lord-Wilder of Perry, Mich., out of the way, Hemingway, 19 -- possessing just a half-dozen bouts in her pugilistic portfolio -- is scheduled to face Jaclyn Nichols of Berlin, N.J., at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., around 8 p.m. If Hemingway wins, it's believed she would be the first female Western Pennsylvanian to win a U.S. National Championship division. She would be the first Western Pennsylvanian overall to win one since Aliquippa's Verquan Kimbrough in 2002.

"She can't wait," he said of Hemingway, a former Perry Traditional Academy athlete who has boxed only two years. "This is Tika's first national championship, so I thought I'd move her up. She's a light 170."

In other words, she automatically made the weight for the 176-pound division, where only three female fighters qualified: her, Nichols and Lord-Wilder, who won this event a year ago but inexplicably didn't show up at this tournament. Such a division switch also meant Hemingway (5-1) could avoid the crowded 165-pound class, where she recorded her lone career loss against defending national champ Franchon Crews of Baltimore.

"She actually beat her but didn't get the decision," Seskey said of the February regional elimination bout between Crews and Hemingway at Green Tree. He expects a rematch sometime, though.

For the time being, Hemingway is in Colorado Springs with Steelers radio announcer and local boxing trainer Craig Wolfely in her corner; Seskey, who works with Hemingway at Steel City Boxing in North Side, couldn't make the trip.

Hemingway also could earn a trip to the National Golden Gloves Championships April 22-30 in Omaha, Neb. She is slated to win her division in the Western Pennsylvania Golden Gloves because of a lack of competition. If she likewise wins the state title in a walkover, she would qualify for the national competition.

Earlier this week in the national championships, Ashlei Jaquay of Imperial lost in the 125-pound quarterfinals to Ana Julaton of Alameda, Calif., 23-6. Jaquay is the defending, 141-pound champion of the Western Pennsylvania Golden Gloves.