It was Mount Olive’s tournament – and the rest of Morris County’s teams couldn’t do a single thing about it.

Coach Sean Smyth’s Marauders have been building up for years and they were rewarded with a resounding team victory at the Morris County Tournament held in their very own gym over the weekend.

Mount Olive (285) beat out Hanover Park (205), West Morris (150 ½), Morristown (135 ½), and Montville (115 ½).

Smyth has been coaching at the school since 1999-2000. He has a 366-153-1 career record and many, many big wins – but very, very few moments to match the feeling of clutching the MCT title trophy Saturday night.

Under Smyth, the program had a state champion last year (Tyeler Hagensen), and has had 13 state placewinners under his watch. The Marauders have won six district tournaments and even won a state Group IV championship in 2022.

But it would be tough to top winning an MCT on their own mat, in their own building, in front of many of their own fans. 

Mount Olive dominated from beginning to end.

From the top of the lineup to the bottom – and everywhere in between – the MCT was a celebration of Black, Red, and Gold wrestling. The whole Marauders community – wrestlers, parents, fans, cheerleaders – were invited for the celebration.

“It was pretty exciting, definitely,” Smyth’s son, Colin, said. “It was a cool experience to be a part of.”

“Definitely a great moment,” added Sean Smyth, who is assisted by Bill Romano, Joe Barchetto, Dave Ryerson, Dan Altamura, and A.J. Pinto. “We have had a lot of great moments and this goes down as one of my favorites.”

Mighty Delbarton had won the last 15 team titles in a row but opted to wrestle in Ohio over the weekend, leaving the door wide open for any program to walk in and end the Green Wave Dynasty.

Mount Olive burst through that door and slammed it shut on any other school that stood in the Marauders way.

Smyth put his team through an incredibly difficult obstacle course of a schedule, bringing the Marauders to the season-opening Robin Leff tournament at Southern Regional, and then the Mustang Classic at Brick Memorial over Christmas vacation. 

And then there were the dual meets … at P-Burg … West Essex, High Point and Southern in a home quad. 

And then, there was last week’s Escape the Rock Tournament in Pennsylvania. How deep and talented a tournament was that? Well, not a single Mount Olive wrestler was able to place – even though the Marauders are one of the best teams in all of New Jersey.

Why the rugged schedule? There is a method to Smyth’s madness. Iron sharpens iron, and wrestling top-notch competition on a consistent basis lifts up a team over the long haul.

It sure has lifted up Mount Olive.

Smyth and the Marauders never backed down from a fight, and they bore the fruits of their labor over the weekend.

“In 15 years of hosting it, we never have seen the opportunity to win it and felt we had the team to do it,” Smyth said. “It’s special for the team, the booster club and the community. It was a great day for Mount Olive in general.”

“Everyone is on board,” 190-pound MCT runnerup Tyler Cumming said. “Students, parents, cheerleaders. The town is all in. That really helps us a lot. That gets us pumped up, gives us homefield advantage and everything we need to win.”

The buildup to winning began early in the week. Smyth told the team that it had a golden opportunity to win it and the wrestlers ran with it.

“We emphasized it all week,” Cumming said. “We had a chance, Delbarton won it for 15 years. We were second or third place for 2-3 years in a row and everyone was on board.”

Smyth told his wrestlers to simply win the match ahead of them. Don’t look ahead. Don’t ponder your bracket.

Just win, baby.

The team took his advice to heart.

“Going in, we told the team we need to focus on going round-to-round to advance,” he said. “Don’t bracket watch.”

The team brought a whopping eight wrestlers to the finals and won three weights.

One of the team leaders was 215-pound Nico Gonzalez, who dominated his weight and pinned Kinnelon’s second-seeded Wyatt Sisco in the finals in 2:50.

“Nico is an absolute warrior,” Smyth said. “At Escape the Rock, he split his eye during warm-ups, but he got stitched up and was eliminated in the blood round. He hasn’t missed a beat. He dominated his weight in the bracket. He’ll be a force to deal with in the postseason.”

So will Mount Olive’s 126-pound Anthony Piemonte, who squeaked by Hanover Park’s Nick DiFrancesantonio in a battle between two of New Jersey’s best at that weight, 4-3.

“At 126 we thought that would be a close match and that was a match we thought we could win and Anthony came through,” Smyth said. “Beating the Hanover kid was nice because he’s so tough. Anthony has put a lot of work into the offseason and we are so proud of him.” 

At 150, Justin Bullock scored a wild 8-5 overtime victory over Roxbury’s Charlie Bacinsky and was the Marauders third champion. 

“That was one of the most exciting MCT finals ever,” Smyth said. “The sky’s the limit for Justin. You just watch, he’ll turn heads at the end of the season.

Tanner Perez (157) built a 7-0 second-period lead on Hanover Park’s Nando Ott but was out of position and pinned himself in 3:57.

“Tough loss for Tanner,” Smyth said. “He got to the final and looked good and then made one mistake. But that won’t derail his season. He’ll learn from it. He helped the team and that is all that we asked of him.”

At 165, Scott Coppolo lost in the finals to Morris Knolls’ Luke Shivas, 9-6.

“Coppolo is a throwback and our hardest worker,” Smyth said. “He brings his lunch pail to practice and works incredibly hard. You gotta love that kid. He does his job. He had a phenomenal tournament.”

Cumming (190) was pinned in the finals by Hanover Park’s Vincenzo LaValle in 1:03.

“Tyler is a phenomenal athlete and an amazing football player,” Smyth said. “He has always been a part of rec in wrestling. He is such a hard-working kid. We expected him to score points and he did. He just happened to come up against one of the top two wrestlers in the state in the weight class in LaValle.”

Matteo Eagleson (132) reached the finals in a deep weight but lost a 7-3 decision to Mendham’s Rafe Fonte. 

“Matteo is another one who did great and we are proud of him,” Smyth said. “He battled all the way to the finals but just came up short. For him to go out and score points for the team and compete the way he did and tale second … that was big for us.”

Brandon Beres (138) took second after losing in the finals to Par Hills’ Mario Fornini, 4-1.

“Brandon is having a great season and he gave us a solid performance and ended up just short in the finals,” Smyth said. He scored points for us and helped the team.”

Mount Olive heavyweight Jared Martini placed third by beating Hanover’s Aeden Hamilton in the third-place consolation match, 9-3.

“Martini contributes wherever we need him, whether it be at 215 or heavyweight,” Smyth said. “He has been in the program for years. He has a  unique, competitive edge and he had a great tournament. Scoring points is all that we ask, and that is what he did, advance and score points for us.

Kristian Beres (106) took third, beating Hanover’s Gabby Conte in the battle for third, 4-0.

“Kristian wrestled great,” Smyth said. “As a freshman in a big tournament, you never know how they’ll do, but he took third and that was big for us.” 

Colin Smyth (144) missed the first month of the season with a broken toe but is coming back strong. He lost in the quarterfinals in overtime to Pequannock’s Gavin Wisz but then wrestled back for fifth. Smyth had a pair of pins in the wrestlebacks and that added to his team’s point total. 

“He is starting to get in shape and he’ll definitely help us,” Sean Smyth said. “Getting pins in the wrestlebacks is where we compiled a lot of points.”

At 175, Stephen Hayek pinned Boonton’s Hamza Shehbaz in 1:42 but had to settle for sixth place in the weight class.

“Stephen is an undersized 175-pounder who is battle-tested but never complains,” Smyth said. “He’ll always battle and that is what he did. He was yet another contributor for us.”

Smyth and the Marauders hope the team is rounding into form for the sectional tournament, which begins Feb. 10. 

Mount Olive finds itself in a loaded North 2, Group IV along with 2024 state Group IV champion Ridge and perennial powerhouse Phillipsburg.

Section.  

Said Cumming, “It’s coming up quick. We’ll have one more week of work and then sections. Winning the MCT was a good test of where we are good and where we are weak. We’ll get to work this week.”

“The intensity has picked up, most definitely,” Colin Smyth added. “We’ll go over conditioning and mistakes we make in matches.”

“It’s gonna be a grind,” Sean Smyth said. “Three great teams. It’ll be a battle. We have been preparing our kids all year for tournaments and dual meets. We have been preparing our kids and now it is up to us to take them through it.”