West Greene’s Main looking to make up for lost time
Owen Main was matside for last year’s wrestling season and didn’t particularly care for the view.
The junior from West Greene High School sat with his teammates, unable to participate because of a torn labrum he suffered in Week 2 of the high school football season.
Main gutted out the final six games of the football season, but the demands of wrestling practice were more than he and his throbbing labrum could stand. So surgery in December ended any chance he could wrestle last season.
That’s also why he is excited about this postseason. He enters today’s WPIAL Class AA Championships at South Fayette High School with a 25-9 record and high hopes he can earn a berth in the Southwest Region Tournament, even the state tournament.
“It was tough missing last season,” said the 195-pound Main, who was 14-18 as a freshman. “I went to every practice and every match, and it was tough to sit there and watch. All I could do was give them support.”
The top seven wrestlers in each weight class advance to the Southwest Region Tournament at Canon-McMillan High School Feb. 27 and 28.
Action gets under way at South Fayette at 5 p.m. today. Quarterfinals will be at 7:30 p.m. Semifinals are at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, consolation finals are at 5 p.m., and the finals are at 7 p.m.
“I’m 100 percent healthy now,” said Main, whose brother Connor is a 182-pound freshman with a 17-12 record. “I lost a little mobility in my shoulder but it’s in the back. I have all the motion up front. Coming back out has been great. I feel so refreshed.”
Main said he hopes to use that energy to win a WPIAL title.
“I’ve looked at the bracket,” he said, “and I think it’s a winnable bracket. I’m going to just wrestle as hard as I can wrestle.”
In other story lines, South Fayette’s Jared Walker is looking to become only the 25th wrestler in the history of the WPIAL to win four championships. Walker, a 160-pound senior from South Fayette won at 160 pounds the last two seasons and at 152 as a freshman.
Walker, a Kent State recruit, has a 30-3 record and is the top seed in the 160 weight class.
Three other wrestlers will try to remain undefeated: Gavin Teasdale of Jefferson-Morgan, who is 36-0 at 106; Mike Carr of South Fayette, who is 34-0 at 138; and Luke Fournier of Elizabeth Forward, who is 26-0 at 195. Fournier pinned Main in last week’s Section 2-AA Tournament.
Austin McDermitt of Burgettstown is looking for his third consecutive WPIAL championship. The senior is 32-1 and the top seed at 120 pounds.
Nine wrestlers return to defend their Class AA titles: Carr, Walker, McDermitt, South Park’s Dallas Bulsak, Jake Wentzel and Greg Bulsak and Jefferson-Morgan’s Bill Bowlen.