Don’t call it an upset.

No. 1 Mount Vernon boys’ wrestling lost its opening dual of the season Thursday, Dec. 5, in the middle school gym, falling to Williamsburg, 36-27.

“Some of us are still working the rust off,” senior heavyweight Ethan Wood said. “But we’ll get it fixed. It is early in the season.”

Mount Vernon and Williamsburg split the 14 matches evenly, 7 to 7, but the Raiders enjoyed a few more bonus-point wins (four pins, a technical fall, and a major decision).

“It was probably the best thing that could happen to us,” Mount Vernon coach Vance Light said. “We were just outwrestled, plain and simple. “I guess we’ve got a lot of stuff to work on. By end of the year, we should be fine.”

The Mustangs have six ranked wrestlers. Watson Krob (175) did not wrestle, recovering from an injury.

Wood, ranked No. 1 at 285, wanted to wrestle No. 4 Carson Grier of Williamsburg, but Grier also sat out with an injury.

“I was hoping to wrestle him,” Wood said. “I like wrestling him, and he’s a nice guy.”

Grier’s back up, senior Trenton Davies, made Wood work for the 7-3 decision. Wood only led 4-3 after two periods. He got a critical single-leg takedown in the third period to provide the final margin.

“I mean, I got a little tired,” Wood said. “We’ll work on it. More conditioning in practice.”

The other top-ranked Mustang, Jase Jaspers, got a 38-second pin at 138 pounds. Other winners included Jake Haugse (120), C.J. Martin (132), Mikey Ryan (150), Cooper Hird (165) and Kael Riniker (215). Williamsburg senior Cael Moore, ranked No. 8 at 175 pounds, clinched the dual by beating No. 6 Cayson Curran at 190 pounds, 7-2.

“They just wrestled better than we did,” Light said. “We’ll continue to work on ourselves little by little. I still think we have a pretty good team.”

The Raiders might be better than advertised, too. They went 5-0 at their home dual tournament two days later, including a 42-26 win over Class 2A No. 9 Davenport Assumption.

Mount Vernon also bounced back Saturday, finishing runner-up to Ballard, 220.5 to 210.5 points, at the Newton Cardinal Classic. Jase Jaspers (144), Mikey Ryan (150), Will Goodlove (157) and Ethan Wood (285) won titles.

Hard to tell if the Mustangs will continue to be ranked No. 1 in 2A. Coach Light felt the first ranking is just based off last season, and what you bring back, and not worth worrying about.

“After tonight, I’m not sure we deserve it,” Light said Thursday. “We’ll see.”