Mary household a home to 100s
As the clock ticked off the final seconds of a 3-2 decision over James O’Neill of Franklin Regional in the Sharon Duals Jan. 27, Luke Mary walked to the center of the mat to get his hand raised.
The senior from Peters Township High School glanced into the crowd to acknowledge a large group of family and friends that included his father, Phil, and his brother, Phillip.
It was a special occasion, the 100th career win of Luke’s wrestling career. It also made him part of a rare situation at home.
He became the third member of the Mary family to reach 100 career wins in wrestling.
“I was nervous for sure coming up to it,” said Luke Mary, a 170-pounder. “I needed 18 coming into the season and I figured that was definitely attainable in one year. As it got closer, I got nervous. I got No. 99 on the same day I got my 100th. I was definitely glad to get it off my chest. There was so much excitement. There were four years of practice and matches. I was thinking about all that before and after that match. It was a goal for four years and to finally achieve it meant a lot.”
Luke Mary now has the chance to become the winningest wrestler in the Mary household. Luke takes a 108-39 career mark into the Section 2-AAA Tournament at Connellsville today, needing two wins to pass his father, Phil, who was a two-time state champion and three-time state placewinner before graduating from Chartiers-Houston in 1982 with a 109-6-1 record. Luke has already passed brother Phillip’s career record pf 106-33.
Luke gives a lot of credit to his father as a supporter and teacher of his wrestling.
“It’s been so beneficial having him and Phillip around,” Luke said. “There are definitely a lot of expectations with the family name and what my dad accomplished, and even my uncle (Chris) coaching at Canon-Mac. I didn’t take it lightly. I did everything I could to compete with them and be in the same light as them.”
Phil Mary said he also had nerves watching Luke chase 100 wins, just like he did when his son Phillip was close.
“I’m so proud because we know how tough wrestling is,” Phil said. “I think how lucky we are to have wrestling in our lives. I’m proud they stuck with it. It’s been a great ride. Luke’s gonna pass me and we’ve had a lot of good joking about that. We bust him pretty hard but it’s been a lot of laughing and giggling about it. It’s been fun.”
Phil said the milestone of 100 wins is impressive because wrestling was not the main sport for either son. Phillip is a starting pitcher on the Mount Union College baseball team and Luke plans to play football in college.
“They are different individuals,” Phil said. “It was pretty evident from the outset that wrestling was never going to be their top sport. We didn’t push them. When they wanted to do it, we let them do it. They’ve been blessed to get what they have in life. They worked hard for it.”
Phillip made the hour-long trip to Sharon to watch his brother’s big win, then headed back to Alliance, Ohio, to make baseball practice.
“We were blessed and had great support,” said Phillip. “It’s a nice goal to have. We wrestled around the house all the time. My mom would be yelling at us to stop it. We broke a lot of things as kids. Luke is a good kid, a lot like me. We keep our heads down and do our own thing. We try to be the best we can be.”
The other Class AAA section tournaments will be held today at Kiski (Section 1), Fox Chapel (Section 3) and Trinity (Section 4).