Daniel Ownbey enters his third season as Wheeling's Head Wrestling coach during the 2022-2023 season, and is in his second full season as the team's leader. In his first full season, Owneby had a dual record of 1-5, 0-4 and had several strong tournament showings.
In 2022, Ownbey continued to rebuild the Wheeling wrestling program, and led it to its first dual win in since 2019 when they defeated Bluefield State 25-24 earlier this season. He had a class of seven wrestlers compete in the MEC Championships and had three wrestlers finish in the top five of the Mountain East Conference (MEC)
During the 2021 season, Ownbey helped rebuild a wrestling program that had not been active since the 2018-2019 season. He worked on recruiting and put together a roster that could be the foundation of the program. He had three wrestlers compete in the MEC Championships with Chase Montgomery, Kale'anahe Slaughter, and Clarouly Meca all competing in the championship tournament, and serving as the foundation of the program.
Ownbey arrives in the northern panhandle after spending this past season as an assistant coach at Division II Newberry College in South Carolina. Prior to that, he had coaching stints at Greensboro College, UNC Pembroke and Ferrum College.
During his coaching experience, Ownbey has helped tutor a combined 17 regional placers and seven national qualifiers.
Last season at Newberry, Ownbey was part of a program that placed five wrestlers at the NCAA Super Region 2 Tournament and had four qualifiers for the NCAA Division II Wrestling Championships.
Ownbey helped with the continued development of 2019 National Runner-Up and 2020 Super Region II Wrestler of the Year Isaiah Royal. Royal, who wrestled at the 141-poind weight class, went 23-2 during the 2019-20 season with both losses coming to Division I opponents.
Entering the 2020-21 season, the OpenMat had ranked Newberry eighth in its preseason poll and the Wolves were picked to win the South Atlantic Conference (SAC) after winning the league title in 2020.
As a student-athlete, Ownbey was a four-time All-American and a two-time national champion in the 141-pound weight class at UNC Pembroke. He became the school's first-ever two-time champion, its third four-time All-American, and graduated in 2015 as the program's third-winningest wrestler with a career mark of 133-18 (.881). Ownbey was the Region II Wrestler of the Year in 2015 and a finalist for the NCAA Division II Wrestler of the Year that season.
A native of Asheville, North Carolina, Ownbey was a two-time state champion at Enka High School, where he won 110 of his last 111 high school matches.
Ownbey earned his Bachelor of Science in Exercise Sports Science from UNC Pembroke in 2015.
| 2021-22 |
1-5, 0-4 |
2 Top 6 MEC Wrestlers at MEC Championships |
| Totals |
1-5, 0-4 |
2 Top 6 MEC Wrestlers |
