Photos by Kim North Martins Ferry’s RJ Welshans has control of Barnesville’s Johnathon Foster during their 157-pound bout at the 71st annual OVAC Ron Mauck Championships Thursday inside WesBanco Arena in downtown Wheeling. Welshans won by major decision, 16-8.

Shadyside’s Jaycob Trigg earned a 7-4 decision over Wheeling Park’s Jacob Carman at 132 pounds during the 71st annual OVAC Ron Mauck Championships Thursday inside WesBanco Arena in downtown Wheeling.

WHEELING — If you blinked, you might have missed some of the 144 matches during Day One of the 71st annual OVAC Ron Mauck Wrestling Championships inside WesBanco Arena. Of those matches, 117 ended in pins, with most of those coming in under a minute.

Action resumes Friday at noon with second-round action in the championship bracket and first round of consolation action. Quarterfinal championship bouts will be contested at 6 p.m, as will second- and third-round consolation

There were also 15 technical falls, seven major decisions, four decisions and one injury default.

Of the 168 seeded wrestlers, only four were upset, with the highest being No. 7 Braylon Leiffer at 150 who was knocked off by Barnesville’s Eli Messenger in a major decision. Two seeds fell at 157, those being No. 9 Drake Bouscher of Toronto by injury default and No. 12 Damien Shaw of East Liverpool; and No. 10 Jake Carman of Wheeling Park at 132.

Prior to the three-day event, Cameron’s top-seeded Klypsan Wallace at 175 was scratched and University’s second-seeded Kaden Nieman at 120 failed to make weight. Also, Conotton Valley, Magnolia and Paden City withdrew from the tournament due to adverse weather conditions.

On the mat, pre-tournament favorite University won all of its matches to pile up 47 points, which was 4.5 better than Steubenville in both the overall and Class 5A standings. Defending champions Pepper Martin (113) and Brock Kehler (285) won by pins.

“Our 106 had a bye but we got a bunch of pins and a couple of technical falls,” University head coach Ken Maisel revealed. “It was a frustrating day to start out with Kaden not making weight. That probably cost us 20 points in the tournament, but like I told the kids, if you do what you’re supposed to do and everybody does that and we come up short, then so be it.”

Big Red also won all of its matches, including lightning-quick pins by returning champs Cooper Smith (144) and Brody Saccoccia (157).

“We won all of our matches. Coming we knew we had a couple that could go either way, but we were able to pull those out,” Steubenville head coach Lucas Huffman noted. “Hopefully, we can keep that going into tomorrow.”

Wheeling Park’s returning champion, Malaki Washington, won in his season debut by a pin at 215. He is seeded No. 2. The Patriots’ Jameson Maynard (190) was a champion two years ago and finished second last fall. He also won by pin in just eight ticks.

Barnesville, the defending overall and Class 3A titlist, holds down the top spot in Class 3A with 29.5 points as returning champion Colt Carpenter (138) won by pin. Teammate Hines Ford (175) earned the quickest fall of the night, that coming in a mere seven seconds.

Wheeling Central sits in fourth place in Class AAA with 12 points.

“I think we’re about where I expected us to be,” Wheeling Central head coach Rick Welker said. “Our heavier weights wrestled really well. We’re still young through our middleweights.”

Cameron, the defending Class A champ, piled up 24 points to sit on top after Day One. Top-seeded Slaton Pettit (150) led the way with a quick pin.

In Class 4A, Beaver Local leads Oak Glen 33.5-23 as defending champ Robert Buchheit (138) breezed through his first match.

PIN FALLS

— In pre-tournament festivities, the 2024 Coaches of the Year were recognized and presented with a plaque. They were: Class A/AA, Dennis Bowers of Southern Local; Jayson Stephen of Barnesville in Class 3A; Oak Glen’s Josh Cornell in Class 4A and Maisel in Class 5A.

— The assistant Coach of the year was Wheeling Park’s Justin Goneau, while Brooke Middle School’s Stephen Hunter was the Junior High Coach of the Year.

— A total of 338 wrestlers were entered in this year’s event. Eighty-one have already placed in the event during their careers.

— A moment of silence was held for a pair of former Cameron Dragons. Long-time head coach Jim Potts passed away over the summer and R.C. Anderson, who was a four-time W.Va. state champion for the Dragons.