Mar 12, 2024 8 min read

Grace O’Korn completed the first season of girls wrestling standing on the podium at Hershey. The Peters Township senior secured a sixth-place medal at 142 pounds.

Grace O’Korn

Buck O’Korn watches his daughter, Grace, perform on the mats during WPIAL championship action. O’Korn served as the coach for the Peters Township High School girls wrestling team. Pennsylvania recognized wrestling as a sport for girls last March and this was the first season they participated in sanctioned tournaments, including the WPIAL and PIAA championships.

Grace O’Korn is an extraordinary female. Not because she wrestles for Peters Township High School, but rather, because she does not fear a scale.

“Weigh-in is no big deal,” said the 142-pound senior. “When I think of wrestling, making weight is so much more than that. My body serves a purpose for wrestling not societal needs. To see what my body can do is empowering.”

O’Korn noted that many females wrestling for the first time in the WPIAL and the PIAA came into the season competing at whatever weight they “fit into” rather than cutting pounds and ounces. She said that being comfortable in one’s own skin and with body image makes the sport “accessible” for anyone.

Buck O’Korn concurs. Grace’s father, he is also the Peters Township girls wrestling coach.

“This is a fantastic opportunity for girls of all shapes and sizes,” he said.

“The female athletic talent pool for wrestling in western PA has just been tapped into,” he continued. “The sky’s the limit. I predict in the very near future national dominance in the sport will follow.”

O’Korn has been a dominant name on the mats for decades.

It started with Frank. Grace’s grandfather and Buck’s dad wrestled and coached at Canon-McMillan, which now has a female program and features some of the best wrestlers in the state. Frank was a state runner-up for the Big Macs. Uncle George was a two-time state champion at Canon-Mac under Frank’s guidance. Both went on to wrestle at the University of Pittsburgh. As Panthers, they both wrestled for national championships. George did so while also playing football and some baseball at Pitt.

Buck and his brother, Brian, both wrestled at Peters Township. Brian accumulated around 80 wins as a four-year starter for the Indians before heading to Pitt while Buck placed third at the national level in Greco-Roman before competing at Clarion University. Buck also placed second in freestyle in the veterans division at the US Open as an adult before retiring due to too many injuries.

In addition to Grace, Buck has a son, Luke, who just finished his seventh-grade season with over 25 victories.

“We were all very fortunate and grateful to have learned about the sport of wrestling from names like Puchani, Murdoch, Buckley, Phil and Chris Mary as well as Rex Peery, Randy Stotlemeyer (Pitt) and Bob Bubb (Clarion). We all just hope we gave a little back to our communities and the families we have touched in the wrestling community,” Buck said.

Just as her relatives before her, Grace is a trailblazer in the sport. She started wrestling in fourth grade but found it hard to continue because there were not a lot of girls competing at that time.

She focused on other things instead and excelled at them.

Grace played soccer and lettered four years on the varsity high school team. She studied and built up her GPA to an astounding 5.0. She’s planning on studying exercise science in college with the expectation of becoming a chiropractor.

A National Honor Society member, she also became the vice president of Future Business Leaders of America. She also worked. She’s a barista at the cafe run at the South Hills Bible Chapel.

“I could not be more proud of Grace. Academics, athletics, kindness,” Buck noted. “She works hard at being the best she can be. She is a pretty darn good wrestler, too. Her effort in the sport brings joy to her Pap, Great Uncle and Uncle.”

Grace wrestles because she wants to, not because she’s forced. After the pandemic, she returned to the sport. In 2022 and 2023, she improved to the point that she qualified for nationals twice, earning trips to Fargo, N.D.

“Wrestling was my choice,” she said. “I saw all (my family) do it while I was growing up and their experiences were exciting. I have learned so much from them, and I work on things with them. They have helped me so much that I feel that I have an advantage.

“With my dad as my coach, it’s a new source of help once I come home. It’s been awesome. Really special,” she added.

Notable has been the 2023-24 wrestling season because it’s the first time the state of Pennsylvania has recognized the sport for females. Recently the WPIAL and the PIAA held its inaugural championships for girls.

Grace excelled in both events. She won a silver medal by finishing second at the district championships. Her fourth-place showing in the regional gained her a berth in the first PIAA championships for girls. During the state tournament held at the Giant Center in Hershey, Grace made history becoming the first female from Peters Township High School to reach the podium in wrestling. She picked up a silver medal.

“It was so surreal walking out onto the mats for the first time,” O’Korn said of the three-day competition in which she wrestled six matches, winning three by falls. “It was such a cool experience to be able to wrestle in front of so many people and knowing that I was a part of making history.”

Grace noted that a recent trip to the Giant Center for the PIAA team championships helped her preparation. She went up with the Canon-McMillan team last year and watched the boys’ semifinals.

“Environment is such a big factor in the competition,” she noted. “That atmosphere is electric, exciting. You don’t realize how lucky you would be to go there. To be there is awesome, but you’re definitely nervous. Nerves though are good as they help get you ready for your match. You just have to control them.”

Thanks to dad, Grace learned to manage her emotions early on in her career. She admitted she has cried after a loss. “My dad would say, ‘why are you crying’ and I would say because I lost. He’d tell me not to cry but rather work through the process of getting better. You don’t want to have regrets.”

Grace is only sorry that wrestling took so long to find a foothold in Pennsylvania. It wasn’t until last March that the PIAA voted to officially recognize girls wrestling for the first time for the 2023-24 season. Currently, there are 12 schools in the WPIAL that have 10 or more females on their roster and 11 others plus three City League schools have at least one girl on its roster.

The Peters Township team consisted of three girls and they were welcomed to practice and trained with the Canon-McMillan girls. The Lady Macs captured the 2024 PIAA team title and crowned the first-ever female state champion in Val Solorio. Because she wrestles at the lightest weight of 100 pounds, Solorio also won the first WPIAL crown. Solorio, who won a national title last summer at Fargo, is an Iowa recruit who posted a 37-1 record during her two-year scholastic career.

“I think since wrestling’s official, it will bring more girls to the sport,” Grace said. “It’s heartwarming when I sit back and see how many little girls look up to Val. I meet a lot of younger girls, too, and it makes me feel like I am doing something worthwhile that they can do as well. I hope word gets out about girls wrestling and it continues to grow.”

Grace noted that wrestling has affected all aspects of her life. From school, work and friendships, the sport has had an impact.

“Wrestling transfers over to everything I do. It’s made me a completely different person. Mentally stronger. A lot of girls who try it will fall in love with it. Not just the combat side but in the fact that what you put into it is what you get out of it.”

Buck agrees with the benefits the sport provides. He said discipline, hard work and life lessons are intrinsic to the sport and young ladies now can experience these first hand.

“Wrestling builds strong, confident people,” he said. “No matter how you slice it, girls can do whatever they want, especially wrestle.”