Nashua North's senior wrestlers, from left, Spencer Whiting, Mickey Mathson and Mitchell Martin, saw their careers end at Timberlane on Wednesday. Missing from this photo is fellow senior Max Ackerman.

PLAISTOW – The inauspicious finale, a 74-0 Division 1 state semifinal loss to five-time defending champion Timberlane Regional did little to dampen the respect heaped on Nashua North High School’s four wrestling seniors on Wednesday night.

“We’re happy to be here,” said 195-pound Titan Spencer Whiting. “I mean, a few years ago we had like three or four kids on this team. We built this back up.

“I hope we instilled a culture here that we can move forward and keep building this team. We’ve tried, as seniors, to instill what we want to see in the younger kids, we get them hyped up, ready to wrestle. It’s what we wanted to do.”

A two-way starter on North’s state champion football team, Whiting and classmates Mickey Mathson, Mitchell Martin and Max Ackerman wrestled their final bouts for North in the state semis.

Victories were not to be had. Top-seeded Timberlane was on its own mat, under the lights with a group of home fans behind the Owls.

But these four Titans, as they have through their entire careers, left nothing in the tank.

“This was a good senior season, we wrestled hard. We built this team from the ground up,” said Martin, the 145-pounder. “It’s a brand-new team, all things considered. Freshmen year, there was almost no one on this team.

I would say so as long as the people younger than us work to bring new kids in, and keep building this team, and comeback even better next year.

“I’ll miss the grind, but I’m really going to miss the kids on this team.”

With Covid-19 impacting the work on the mat and the protocols off it, many seniors have just been happy to get out and compete.

Mathson was one of them.

“We’re very happy, a lot of sports aren’t participating,” said Mathson. “This is one of those sports you wouldn’t even think would happen. So I’m happy we got a little bit of a season, and I’m very proud of this team.

“It was tough. The mask really messes everything up.”

But Mathson and his mates weren’t about to let an opportunity to wrestle, even one that’s made uncomfortable, to not be with the team.

“They’re awesome, all these kids are my friends,” he said. “I’m going to miss wrestling a lot. So many friends are on this team.”

Whiting, like many winter athletes, will move on to spring. He’ll again throw the javelin for the Titans’ track team.

But wrestling is ingrained in him. It’s a part of his high school life. And now it’s over.

“It’s a little bittersweet, it’s one of the harder sports I play,” he said. “But, yeah, it’s sad that it’s over.”

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