Adam Haines remembers his worst loss from the 2024-25 wrestling season vividly. The Fox Chapel senior dropped a 1-0 decision to Gateway’s Luke Pawlowski in the blood round of the Allegheny County Tournament at 139 pounds.

“That’s been in my head forever,” Haines said. “Doing good this year was to make up for that.”

Haines reached the final at 145 pounds this season, losing 9-0 to Bethel Park’s Ian Bucheli to place second.

“I think that was a good breakthrough for him to get to the finals,” Foxes coach Michael Frank said. “I don’t think he wrestled a bad match in the finals. There’s a handful of things that we need to work on position-wise to make sure we stay in positions where we know he can wrestle his match.”

Haines’ performance was the highlight for Fox Chapel, which placed sixth as a team. Joey Geller placed fourth at 215 pounds while Daniel Noel (127 pounds) finished in sixth place and Andrew Kratsa (145) and Anthony Nguyen (152) finished eighth.

Haines had a good feeling about his opportunity to reach the final when he saw the seeding. On the way to the finals, Haines pinned his first two opponents, Central Catholic’s Jude Landreneau and Thomas Jefferson’s Kaden Fitz.

He then survived a scare with South Park’s Josh Duncan, winning in overtime, before beating Moon’s Zachary Regotti to reach the championship match.

“I knew I was going to be in the finals,” Haines said. “I thought I was going to win it going in. I saw who I was going to be wrestling, and I felt like it would be easy to get there.”

Haines, who is 77-46 in his career, has already set a career-best for wins in a season. Haines is 21-6 and has won 13 matches via pin.

“I’ve gotten better on my feet since last year,” Haines said. “I feel like there is still room to get better. My goal from last season was to get better on my feet. I’m a leg rider, but I’ve been trying to get away from that and get to more basic stuff right on top.”

Haines didn’t get to wrestle in the playoffs last year because of an injury.

During his freshman and sophomore year, he qualified for the WPIAL Class 3A championships.

Haines said that he has spent a lot of time since his freshman year working on ways to be more precise.

“I was being too aggressive and taking bad shots. I didn’t set them up right,” Haines said. “I’m trying to dial things down and take better shots.”