The George Mason grapplers kicked off their season on Saturday, competing in a quad meet against Annapolis Area Christian Academy, St. James, and Collegiate. The Mustangs showed a promising start to the wrestling season. First wrestling against Annapolis Area Christian Academy, the number two private school in Maryland last year in wrestling, Mason came out with a win. 

Coming back from a third place finish in the State Tournament last year, senior Joey Cohe pinned both of his two opponents. Seniors Matt Bond, John-Henry Pitas, and Josh Singer won each of their respective matches, while sophomore Mac Cohe won each of his two matches.

The Mustangs have high hopes this year. Wrestling coach Dr. Heupel believes that many of the Mason wrestlers have a good shot at making it to state competition this year. Joey Cohe and Andrew Montgomery both made it last year, and have a good chance of returning. The chances of many of the other seniors, including John-Henry Pitas, Matt Bond, Mike Denny, as well as junior Dominic Clark, are also looking promising.

In addition to some of the returning wrestlers getting a chance to get back out on the mat, many younger wrestlers got a chance to get some experience. Wrestling coach Dr. Heupel said, "In our matches with St. James, we had to put in a lot of our more inexperienced wrestlers to cover weight classes, but we still had some good matches and some good wins." He credits eighth-grader Bob Bumgarner and sophomores Colin Ehmer, Orie Bumgarner, Mike Cummings, and Devlin Melancon for stepping up and competing well.

"Mainly, what we we’re after was to get our wrestlers on the mat in real situations with referees and a crowd to get ready for the big meet this weekend," Heupel said. The Mustangs compete at the Meade Tournament next weekend.