Grapplers Have Winning Week

What has now become an annual event for the George Mason High School wrestlers, the team hosted its yearly tournament last Saturday and the team won three of its four team matches. The Mustangs were led by their usual trio of co-captains, Devlan Melancon, Mac Cohe and Colin Ehmer, the three of whom went undefeated in their six matches last week.

The Mustangs were led by senior team co-captains Devlan Melancon (145 lbs.), Mac Cohe (171 lbs.) and Colin Ehmer (140 lbs.) who went undefeated in the past two home events.

In the last week, the GMHS Wrestling team hosted two home events in which they wrestled a total of 6 dual matches against other schools. As a team, the Mustangs won 5 of the 6 matches and barely lost the sixth. The first two wins came on Wednesday, January 14th when GM hosted Bull Run District rival Madison County and Group AAA Culpepper in a tri-match. First the Mustangs easily handled Madison County winning by a final score of 41-24, losing only two individual bouts. The Mustangs followed up this impressive display by pulling off a come-from-behind win over Culpepper 30-28 which came down to the very last bout.

The remainder of Mason’s matches came on Saturday, January 17th when they hosted Region B rival Stonewall Jackson, Group AA Courtland, cross-town Group AAA rival Falls Church and Group AAA Lake Braddock. In the first round on Saturday, Mason squared off against Falls Church winning by a score of 46-19. In the second round, the Mustangs faced Stonewall Jackson solidly defeating them 41-30. Mason’s fifth consecutive win came against Courtland. The Mustangs squeaked past 40-36; the outcome once again came down to the last individual bout. The Mustang’s 5 win streak was snapped in a 21-42 loss to Lake Braddock that was far closer than the score would indicate with Mason losing 4 extremely close bouts with a total of a 24 point swing.

Individually, Melancon and Cohe both were 5-0 and Ehmer was 3-0 and all three recorded 2 pins. Also undefeated was sophomore Willie Hoover (140 lbs.) who had 4 wins, two of which were pins while splitting matches with Ehmer. Senior Andrew Hipolit (189 lbs.) went 5-1 recording 3 pins and sophomore Nick Pitas (112 lbs.) had four wins, two of which were pins. Senior Zach Schwind (152 lbs.) and sophomore Mike Coleman (125 lbs.) both had 3 wins recording 1 and 2 pins respectively. Seniors Mike Cummings (152 lbs.) and Tim Quintyn (275 lbs.) and freshman Andy Millar (119 lbs.) each won two matches, Quintyn recording 1 pin. Junior John Sullivan (160 lbs.) and sophomores Kristin Schwind (119 lbs.) and Tashdid Kahn (130 lbs.) each won a match for the Mustangs and sophomores Trevor Quillin (135 lbs.) and Bob Bumgarner (160 lbs.) rounded out the Varsity lineup.

Other good news from Saturday is that two Mason wrestlers have already hit the milestone 20 season win mark putting them on pace to break the season win record of 36. Andrew Hipolit currently has 21 wins and Mac Cohe has 20. Several wrestlers also neared the season pin mark of 16 on Saturday with Cohe having 13, Hipolit with 12 and Nick Pitas with 11. All three of these wrestlers as well as several others are very likely to break the record before the end of the season.

The Mustangs next event is a District Dual Match at Rappahanncok County on Wednesday, January 21st.