WEST LIBERTY — The 26th Tri-State Wrestling “Clash of Champions” between the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference and Pennsylvania’s Midwestern Athletic Conference All Stars will be held Wednesday. After a year off due to COVID-19, the seniors-only event will take place inside the ASRC on the campus of West Liberty University at 7 p.m.

The pre-match banquet will be held on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Undos in Weirton.

The OVAC lineup, which still had two empty weight classes (126 and 215) as of Sunday night, is led by a trio of state champions, including St. Clairsville’s Caden Stout who won the Ohio Division II 150-pound state title. He will compete at 152. The others are Wheeling Park’s Nate Shelek (132) and Cameron’s Ian Bush (182), both two-time Mountain State champs.

Shelek and Bush are two of six OVAC Ron Mauck Tournament titlists on the local squad, with Stout finishing second. The others are St. Clairsville’s Gannon Kazmirski (113), Beaver Local’s Logan Ours (160), Indian Creek’s Austin Starr (195) and Steubenville’s Peyton Tuttle (285). Kazmirski also placed eighth in the D-II state tournament, while Ours — the OVAC Ron Mauck Tournament Bierkortte Award winner — was third and Starr second. Tuttle was a state qualifier.

Rounding out the OVAC roster are Indian Creek’s Tyler Sipes (120); Beaver Local’s duo of Mark Emmerling Jr. (138) and Dorian Jackson (145); and University’s Elijah Wellings-Osha (170). Sipes finished fourth in the OVAC Ron Mauck Tournament, while Emmerling Jr. was sixth and a state qualifier. Jackson and Wellings-Osha were OVAC Ron Mauck Tournament runners-up.

As in the past, there will be no 106-pound match contested.

OVAC coaches include Cameron’s Tim Jones; Beaver Local’s Johnny McComas; and Wheeling Park’s Brian Leggett.

Jones and Leggett were the Class A and Class AAA Coaches of the Year, respectively, this year at the 75th annual WVSSAC state tournament when they led the squads to state championships.

The MAC has wrestlers from nine different schools. Central Valley, Montour and Quaker Valley each have two, while Ambridge, Carlynton, Chartiers Valley, Freedom, Moon and South Fayette all have one.

Five Keystone State wrestlers won MAC Tournament titles this season, with Quaker Valley’s Patrick Cutchember (189) winning the MAC, WPIAL and finishing fourth at the PIAA’s this season. He has 141 career wins and was seventh in the 2020 PIAAs.

Other MAC champs are Moon’s Khyvon Grace (132), Central Valley’s Ambrose Boni (138), Quaker Valley’s Mason Diemert (172) and Freedom’s Landon Millward (215). Boni was sixth at the PIAAs.

The MAC roster is filled by Montour’s James Walzer (113); South Fayette’s Jimmy Anderson (120); Carlynton’s Bryce Rodriguez (126); Ambridge’s Tyler Holman (145); Chartiers Valley’s Christopher Beatty (152); Montour’s Aaron DeLuca (160); and Central Valley’s Lance Crawley (285).

The OVAC leads the all-time series, 18-7.