Dec. 19 - Wrestler of the Week – Mario Mason
At a loaded weight, Blair’s Mason captures pair of championships
By Rob Sherrill, W.I.N. High School Editor
Blairstown (N.J.) Blair Academy junior Mario Mason is one of three wrestlers to win titles in both of the East’s season-opening mega-tournaments: the Cuyahoga Falls (Ohio) Walsh Jesuit Ironman Invitational and the Beast of the East in Newark, Del.
Yet I’ll predict at least one reader will respond that Mason’s accomplishment isn’t really worthy of Wrestler of the Week honors.
“What’s the big deal?” I can hear them saying. “He was seeded No. 1 in both events. So all he did what he was expected to do.”
Did you take a look at his weight class in each tournament? Or the number of No. 1 seeds who didn’t manage to win?
All Mason did was win a weight class — twice — over fields that, when put together, included the top seven 140-pound wrestlers in the nation. Mason’s side of the bracket alone included two Oklahoma State signees: Junior National champion Jamal Parks of Tulsa (Okla.) Union High and Luke Silver of Dallas (Texas) Bishop Lynch High. On the other side was the preseason No. 1 wrestler — Pennsylvania recruit Zack Kemmerer of Pennsburg (Pa.) Upper Perkiomen High — and Delaware state champion Tommy Abbott of Wilmington St. Mark’s High.
Abbott upset Kemmerer, 3-2, in the other semifinal, denying him a shot at the top-seeded Mason for the second consecutive week. In the Ironman semifinals, Lakewood St. Edward’s Shawn Harris also toppled Kemmerer with a stunning pin in the overtime tie-breaker.
All the hoopla didn’t bother Mason. At the Beast, he put away Silver — who had beaten Junior National champion Parks for the second straight week — by a 5-2 margin in the semifinals, then scored a pair of points in the overtime tie-breaker to beat Abbott, 3-1.
At the Ironman, Harris and his pin got the headlines, but Mason got the hardware with a 5-2 finals victory. That came after victories of 5-1 over Steve Nestor of Greenville (Pa.) H.A. Reynolds High in the quarterfinals and 8-3 over another member of the Super Seven, Nick Nelson of Glenshaw (Pa.) Shaler High, in the semifinals.
In Blair’s power-packed lineup, which produced six finalists in each event, it’s easy to be overlooked. Even though Mason has a National Prep Championships title, a Cadet National freestyle crown and a Junior Nationals All-America finish, he likely wouldn’t be the first name on most people’s list when choosing the Bucs wrestler most likely to win the Ironman and the Beast.
Believe it. He’s got the hardware. And at that weight class, it is a big deal.
The St. Edward Unlikely Hero of the Week
As long as we’re on the subject of things that are no big deal, maybe we’ve finally stumbled upon it. St. Edward has pulled off so many big wins in its key victories over the years that we’ve come to expect it.
Last Saturday’s runaway win in the inaugural St. Edward Elite 8 Duals provided the backdrop for the latest installment in that ongoing saga.
Virtually every big St. Edward victory has featured a key win by a member of the lineup from which such heroism was not expected. Last weekend, that mantle fell on junior 135-pounder Andrew Gasber.
St. Edward lost only one match in winning its first two matches, 67-5, over Naperville (Ill.) Neuqua Valley High and, 72-0, over Parkersburg (W.Va.) High. That took the Eagles to the final against intra-state rival St. Paris Graham High, which had toppled the nation’s No. 3 team, Kansas City (Mo.) Oak Park High, 39-22, in their second match.
David Taylor’s 5-3 victory over Jamie Clark at 103 sparked Graham to an early 11-0 lead. State champion Collin Palmer won at 125 and Neil Birt (130) added a pin to close the gap to 11-9. At 135, two-time state champion Ben Jordan had the match against Gasber in control when he tried to throw Gasber, who rolled through and scored a pin at 2:37.
Had Gasber not given us a taste of things to come with a double Cadet Nationals All-America finish and a sixth-place finish at the Ironman, we would have been wondering where all that drama came from. His answer shouldn’t surprise us one bit.
“I’m used to that kind of action wrestling so much freestyle and Greco(-Roman),” Gasber told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “I knew instinctively I could counter that throw.”
Gasber’s pin highlighted a run of nine St. Edward victories in a 10-match span and gave the Eagles the lead for good as they beat Graham, 41-17.
By Rob Sherrill, W.I.N. High School Editor
Blairstown (N.J.) Blair Academy junior Mario Mason is one of three wrestlers to win titles in both of the East’s season-opening mega-tournaments: the Cuyahoga Falls (Ohio) Walsh Jesuit Ironman Invitational and the Beast of the East in Newark, Del.
Yet I’ll predict at least one reader will respond that Mason’s accomplishment isn’t really worthy of Wrestler of the Week honors.
“What’s the big deal?” I can hear them saying. “He was seeded No. 1 in both events. So all he did what he was expected to do.”
Did you take a look at his weight class in each tournament? Or the number of No. 1 seeds who didn’t manage to win?
All Mason did was win a weight class — twice — over fields that, when put together, included the top seven 140-pound wrestlers in the nation. Mason’s side of the bracket alone included two Oklahoma State signees: Junior National champion Jamal Parks of Tulsa (Okla.) Union High and Luke Silver of Dallas (Texas) Bishop Lynch High. On the other side was the preseason No. 1 wrestler — Pennsylvania recruit Zack Kemmerer of Pennsburg (Pa.) Upper Perkiomen High — and Delaware state champion Tommy Abbott of Wilmington St. Mark’s High.
Abbott upset Kemmerer, 3-2, in the other semifinal, denying him a shot at the top-seeded Mason for the second consecutive week. In the Ironman semifinals, Lakewood St. Edward’s Shawn Harris also toppled Kemmerer with a stunning pin in the overtime tie-breaker.
All the hoopla didn’t bother Mason. At the Beast, he put away Silver — who had beaten Junior National champion Parks for the second straight week — by a 5-2 margin in the semifinals, then scored a pair of points in the overtime tie-breaker to beat Abbott, 3-1.
At the Ironman, Harris and his pin got the headlines, but Mason got the hardware with a 5-2 finals victory. That came after victories of 5-1 over Steve Nestor of Greenville (Pa.) H.A. Reynolds High in the quarterfinals and 8-3 over another member of the Super Seven, Nick Nelson of Glenshaw (Pa.) Shaler High, in the semifinals.
In Blair’s power-packed lineup, which produced six finalists in each event, it’s easy to be overlooked. Even though Mason has a National Prep Championships title, a Cadet National freestyle crown and a Junior Nationals All-America finish, he likely wouldn’t be the first name on most people’s list when choosing the Bucs wrestler most likely to win the Ironman and the Beast.
Believe it. He’s got the hardware. And at that weight class, it is a big deal.
The St. Edward Unlikely Hero of the Week
As long as we’re on the subject of things that are no big deal, maybe we’ve finally stumbled upon it. St. Edward has pulled off so many big wins in its key victories over the years that we’ve come to expect it.
Last Saturday’s runaway win in the inaugural St. Edward Elite 8 Duals provided the backdrop for the latest installment in that ongoing saga.
Virtually every big St. Edward victory has featured a key win by a member of the lineup from which such heroism was not expected. Last weekend, that mantle fell on junior 135-pounder Andrew Gasber.
St. Edward lost only one match in winning its first two matches, 67-5, over Naperville (Ill.) Neuqua Valley High and, 72-0, over Parkersburg (W.Va.) High. That took the Eagles to the final against intra-state rival St. Paris Graham High, which had toppled the nation’s No. 3 team, Kansas City (Mo.) Oak Park High, 39-22, in their second match.
David Taylor’s 5-3 victory over Jamie Clark at 103 sparked Graham to an early 11-0 lead. State champion Collin Palmer won at 125 and Neil Birt (130) added a pin to close the gap to 11-9. At 135, two-time state champion Ben Jordan had the match against Gasber in control when he tried to throw Gasber, who rolled through and scored a pin at 2:37.
Had Gasber not given us a taste of things to come with a double Cadet Nationals All-America finish and a sixth-place finish at the Ironman, we would have been wondering where all that drama came from. His answer shouldn’t surprise us one bit.
“I’m used to that kind of action wrestling so much freestyle and Greco(-Roman),” Gasber told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “I knew instinctively I could counter that throw.”
Gasber’s pin highlighted a run of nine St. Edward victories in a 10-match span and gave the Eagles the lead for good as they beat Graham, 41-17.