Photo by Kim North Steubenville’s Lucas Huffman, left, talks with Martins Ferry’s Chad Ware (in purple) and Union Local’s Nate Starkey during Monday night’s OVAC Ron Mauck Wrestling Championships press conference inside downtown Wheeling’s WesBanco Arena. The three-day event begins Thursday.

WHEELING — The top 12 seeds in each weight class for the 71st annual OVAC Ron Mauck Wrestling Championships were revealed Monday night during a press conference inside the east meeting room at WesBanco Arena.

The three-day event kicks off Thursday night with the traditional Olympic-style opening ceremonies, with wrestling beginning 30 minutes later. Action continues Friday at noon and again at 6 p.m., with Saturday’s action beginning at 11 a.m. with championship semifinals. Special awards, including the prestigious Mr. Mat, will be presented at 3:30 p.m., with the championship finals starting at 4.

“Last year was a little tough with all the snow that we received on Thursday,” Tournament Director Shane Shaffer, in his second year, said. “We had to cancel Friday last year and combine some rounds to get the tournament finished, but the coaches were receptive to everything we did.

“Hopefully, cross your fingers, the weather treats us better this year,” Shaffer continued.

Seven defending champions highlight the 2025 event as Steubenville and University have two each. Big Red is represented by junior Cooper Smith (144) and senior Brody Saccoccia (157), while the Hawks’ senior tandem Pepper Martin (113) and Brock Kehler (285) return. Barnesville sophomore Colt Carpenter (138); Beaver Local senior Bobby Buchheit (138) and Wheeling Park senior Malaki Washington (215) round out the returning titlists.

Saccoccia, who won at 150 a year ago, is a Purdue University signee and was the Bierkortte Award winner last year, while Kehler will attend West Virginia University. Martin prevailed at 106 a year ago; Carpenter won at 126 last year; Buchheit at 132; and Washington at 190.

All received top billing in their respective weight class, with the exception of Buchheit (No. 3) and Washington (No. 2).

Pre-tournament favorite University, which finished a close second to Barnesville last winter, had all 13 of its 14 wrestlers receive a seed, with three receiving No. 1 nods. They were Martin, Colton Gillespie (126) and Kehler.

“Everything looks good on paper but we’ll see what happens after three days on the mats,” University head coach Ken Maisel said. “Paper doesn’t mean anything. You’ve still got to go out and perform. I didn’t feel like we competed last weekend against Bethel Park (Pa.), so today at practice we got after it.”

Steubenville checked in with 11 seeds, including Smith and Saccoccia being No. 1s. Barnesville, Beaver Local and John Marshall all came away with nine seeds, while Cameron had seven. Of that group, only the Dragons had top seeds in seniors Slaton Pettit (150) and Klypsan Wallace (175).

“Cooper and Brody are both having outstanding seasons,” Steubenville head coach Lucas Huffman said. “We look for them to wrestle well this weekend and bring back two more titles.”

Huffman said practicing every day together has tremendously helped the pair.

“Those two plus Landon Crosier and Ethan Llewellyn battle every day in practice,” he explained. “Iron sharpens iron.”

Wheeling Park finished with seven, including No. 1 Jameson Maynard at 190. He was a champion two years ago and runner up last year.

“We’re as healthy as we’re going to get for the rest of the year. That’s awesome,” Wheeling Park first-year head coach Danny Doyle said as the Patriots were banged up in the early going. “Malaki will be wrestling for the first time this season, but watching him in practice, you could never tell he was injured. He’s ready to defend his title.”

Doyle said he is anxious to watch his three senior performers in Jack Lowe (150), Isaac Sands (165) and Maynard. Lowe and sands are both seeded third.

“All of those guys have had steady careers,” he noted.

Barnesville head coach Jayson Stephen expects his Shamrocks like always, despite losing a ton of points to graduation.

“We’re a small school and we did what we had to last year,” he said of winning the overall and Class 3A titles. “I expect the kids to go out and battle. I told them today at practice to just go out and wrestle. Take care of what you can control and don’t worry about other things.

“We had 10 kids place last year and five of them return,” Stephen said. “That’s pretty good for a small school.”

Senior Ayden King, who was a runner up last year, is the top seed at 165.

The remaining No. 1 seeds are Linsly’s Brock Humphrey (106); East Liverpool’s Tristan Eckles (120); Linsly’s George Mamakos (132); and Wheeling Central’s Isaac Martin (215).