Mario MasonRevWrestling.com recently caught up with Mason and talked to him about a variety of subjects, including his redshirt season, Dustin Schlatter, Jeff Buxton, Ryland Geiger, Adam Frey, Cory Cooperman, and much more.
There was some talk at the beginning of the school year that you might wrestle in the Gophers lineup as a true freshman. Why was the decision made to redshirt this season? And was that something you were comfortable with?
Mason: Yeah, the coaches asked me what I wanted to do. They didn't leave it in my hands, but took it into consideration. It was the coaches' decision ultimately, but I had a say in it. Redshirting has allowed me to grow, mature, and get stronger.
What has been the biggest adjustment for you going from high school wrestling to college wrestling?
Mason: Between the workouts and school schedule, it's pretty rigorous. We have a couple workouts a day that are pretty tough. Getting down to weight in college is harder than just going to high school, working out once, and doing whatever you need to do to get down to weight.
Mario Mason has a compiled a record of 14-2 this season wrestling in open tournaments (Photo/The Guillotine)Mason: I don't feel that I have wrestled my best. I wasn't too happy with some of my performances, even when I was winning. The first tournament or two, I think it had to do with getting down to weight, which was tough. I didn't exactly cut weight the right way. Just doing that a little better should help my wrestling. And also getting in condition for a seven-minute match, which takes a little bit of time.
You competed at 149 in the first three open tournaments, but then moved up to wrestle at 157 for the Flash Open. Why did you move up to 157 for that tournament?
Mason: It was just an open tournament, so I just wanted to wrestle and not cut as much weight. That's about it.
So the plan is still to compete at 149 next season?
Mason: Yeah, that's still the plan.
Dustin Schlatter is also redshirting this season at Minnesota. Being that you two are close in weight, I imagine that you work out with him regularly. What has been like working out with Dustin?
Mason: It's a good experience. He's bigger than me. Being that he's one of the best wrestlers in the country, it's just a good feel. It makes me have to work out a lot … and work on things that I need to do to get better.
Last season, there were eight Blair Academy wrestlers who competed at the NCAAs in St. Louis. There are several Blair Academy wrestlers making an impact this season in college, including Rollie Peterkin, Kellen Russell, and Hudson Taylor. If an All-Blair Academy team of current college wrestlers was assembled, could that team finish in the top 10 at the NCAAs?
Mason: I think it definitely could. If all of our guys got their act together and wrestled tough, we could put together a pretty good team. Blair has a very good team right now, too. They're No. 1 in the country again.
Blair Academy coach Jeff Buxton has a coaching resume that certainly speaks for itself. But what makes Buxton such a great coach?
Mason: He's like a college coach. He stays on the guys. He puts the team through tough workouts. He's a great leader and enforcer. And a great teacher, too. People listen to him. He has been very influential to so many people.
Ryland Geiger is also redshirting this season at Minnesota. He attended Blair Academy as a sophomore, where he was a high school teammate of yours. Now he's a college teammate. Describe your relationship with Ryland Geiger and what it has been like reuniting with him.
Ryland GeigerOne of your former teammates at Blair Academy, Adam Frey, is courageously battling cancer right now. Have you been able to talk to him much during his battle with cancer?
Mason: Yeah, I've talked to him a few times. I'll occasionally text him and ask him how he's doing. When I went home for break, I went to the Beast of the East, where he was helping coach his younger brother, Garrett, so I talked to him there. He tells me that he's going to beat it. So God willing, he beats it. We'll be praying for him.
You have wrestled and trained with a lot of great wrestlers throughout your career. Who is the toughest wrestler you have ever faced in competition?
Mason: When I was a sophomore in high school, I wrestled Lance Palmer. He beat me pretty good when I was a sophomore. That was probably one of my toughest matches in high school.
Who is the toughest wrestler you have ever worked out with?
Mason: Probably some of the coaches here at the U … like Jared Lawrence. Dustin (Schlatter) is definitely one of the toughest wrestlers I have trained with. There are some other coaches that I have worked with in my wrestling career … like Jonathan Johnson, Sheldon Thomas, Cory Cooperman, Jeff Buxton … I mean, there have been a lot of them. I could list off a million names.
Cory Cooperman, a Blair Academy graduate, redshirted at Minnesota before transferring to Lehigh, where he became a three-time All-American (Photo/Danielle Hobeika)Mason: Well, to tell you the truth, I didn't talk to Cory about Minnesota until I was actually looking to go there. But I worked out with him a lot during my high school career. He helped me out a ton. I visited Cornell too. Cory told me that if I wasn't going to attend Cornell, then Minnesota would be a great place to go to school and wrestle. He said it's a great environment for wrestling.
Cory Cooperman is very highly-regarded as technician. How has Cory helped you out in your wrestling career?
Mason: He does a lot of funk wrestling. He's very good with that. He's very flexible, too. But also by wrestling hard. He's helped me a lot with setups on my feet. Just wrestling him in general helped me out a lot. If something happened when we were wrestling live, he would show me how to improve on something technically, so I was able to get better that way.
Mario Mason won virtually every big tournament during his days at Blair Academy (Photo/Tech-Fall.com)Mason: I believe we definitely have a lot of potential. From top to bottom, we're going to have a very solid team. There are several freshmen who could even be in the lineup this season. But holding everybody back, just keeping everybody together, is going to make us even stronger in the upcoming years.
Do you plan to compete in any other open tournaments this season?
Mason: I'm not sure yet. But I plan to wrestle in freestyle tournaments after the college season.
Which freestyle tournaments?
Mason: If I can, I'll be going to go to Las Vegas, which is the qualifier for the Junior World Team. I don't know yet what else, but I'll definitely be competing if I can.
Please Note: This story also appears in the April 17 issue of The Guillotine. The Guillotine has been covering amateur wrestling in Minnesota since 1971. Its mission is to report and promote amateur wrestling at all levels -- from youth and high school wrestling to college and international level wrestling. For information on how to subscribe, click HERE.
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