Triton's Smith Overcomes Hurdles to Score Victory

One painful step at a time,  wrestler Nick Smith hobbled off the mat after his overtime match with Timber Creek’s Matt Kountz Wednesday evening.

Smith had suffered a pair of setbacks in the match—a knee injury in the first period that hampered his mobility and a mental lapse when he let Kountz earn a two-point reversal to tie the match with just two seconds left in regulation.

Yet, when Smith finally left the mat, he did so victorious. In that sense, everything was just fine.

Smith scored a takedown just a few seconds into overtime to score a 6-4 win and improve to 11-1 on the season.

“My leg was hurting when I went for the takedown, but I knew I just had to go for it,” said Smith, who sat with a bag of ice wrapped around his knee for the remainder of the Mustangs’ 56-9 loss to the top-ranked Chargers. “This was definitely one of my better wins.”

Smith was injured early in the first period, but said the pain didn’t really kick in until the end of his match.

“My leg was real straight when I had an under-hook in and when (Kountz) went around the back of my legs he popped it out,” Smith said. “It just wasn’t the same the whole match.”

“Nick’s a gutsy guy,” said Triton first-year head coach Andrew Haubois. “He’s a leader in the practice room and his attitude just gets better and better every day, and he gets better and better every match, so I’m really happy with his progress.”

Smith appeared to have the match won after he started the third period with a two-point reversal to grab a 4-2 advantage. However, Kountz dug deep and tied the match with a reversal of his own with just two seconds remaining.

Smith was disappointed that he let the win slip out of his hands but was determined to score a victory in the extra session.

“After the bell rang (to end the third period), I realized I should have just let him get his one (point) and then I still would have won by one,” Smith said. “Once it happened I knew I just had to go hard in overtime.”

The rest of Wednesday night belonged to the Chargers (11-4), who returned to the mat for the first time since a busy weekend at the Virginia Duals. Senior Schalor Blackshear, who won by pin in 16 seconds at 220, had the most impressive victory.

“It feels good when you get that early (takedown),” said Blackshear, who improved to 7-6 on the season.

While is well on its way to an Olympic Conference title and has its eyes set on making a run at a state title, things have gone quite differently for Triton. The Mustangs (1-9-1) have a lot of youth on the roster and that has led to fewer victories than anticipated.

Haubois said he has talked to his more experienced wrestlers to make sure they remain focused on their individual success. While wrestling is a team sport, Haubois preaches that no one can help you but yourself when you are on the mat and that is a message that has sunk in for Smith.

“I think about it individually a lot more than as a team because this is my senior year and I want to go as far as I can,” Smith said. “Other than that, I love these guys. Win or lose, they go hard in the room and do what they got to do. They just don’t always win.”

Haubois said that despite the lopsided result, a lot of good came from Wednesday’s effort.

“I was proud of the way some of our guys fought,” said Haubois. “I think a couple guys are right there, about to turn a corner. The good news is we only graduate two guys that wrestled tonight, so I’m really looking forward to what we can do here in the future.”

Check back with Gloucester Township Patch this weekend for a feature on Timber Creek wrestling.