After taking an unprecedented week off from competition
during Thanksgiving break, the wrestling team will have their hands full this
weekend with three duals on Saturday in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania and an open
tournament on Sunday, hosted by Penn State.
"It's going to be a real test for our guys," said Head Coach
Joe Russell. "Having three matches on Saturday and then wrestling
again on Sunday is definitely tough. Hopefully
they will have a ton of matches on Sunday because that means that we will be
wrestling well in the tournament. But it
will definitely be a great test for us and it will be good preparation for the
end of the season when we have Nationals, which are multi-day tournaments."
The weekend will start for Mason at 9am on Saturday with
their dual against East Stroudsburg University, followed by a dual with Bloomsburg
University at 10:45am and concluding with a match against Sacred Heart
University 12:30pm. After a long Saturday, Mason hopes to have a long Sunday as
well due to a strong performance in the Penn State University Open tournament.
"This will most likely be our toughest tournament of the year,"
reflected Russell. "Traditionally it's a
very good tournament, but I think the guys have been making progress and we
will definitely be able to tell this weekend where we are as a team. They had a little time off in Thanksgiving
and I hope that will have them ready for this weekend and our first home
competition next week."
This will be the last match before Mason's first home
competition on December 10th against American University, which will
be followed closely by the beginning of the conference schedule.
"In the early tournaments this year we got a chance to see
what we needed to work on and we have been doing extra training in those areas,
I am hoping to continue to see steady improvements this weekend," concluded
Russell.
