The most important day in Ethan Smith's wrestling career was also his toughest.

He was a sophomore at Greater Latrobe High in wrestling-rich Pennsylvania, his eyes set on placing at the state championship. After a loss on the tournament's first day, he wrestled his way back into position to take fifth place, but lost in overtime.

“It was terrible,” said Smith, now a senior 182-pound standout at Sparrows Point. “It made me feel like I wasn't doing enough, questioned everything I was doing. When that happened, I really decided that this is what I wanted to do. So I trained harder, thinking if I'm going to do this, I need to do it to my fullest to make something out of it.”

For Smith, that's lifting weights and working on conditioning before school, getting absolutely everything out of practice in the afternoon and then staying afterward to get more work in. He said he has this in mind: “If you're not doing extra, you're not going to be successful and not going to beat the really good guys.”

And now he is one of the really good ones.

Since moving to Maryland his junior year — he wrestled at Aberdeen before transferring to Sparrows Point this year — Smith has not lost a match. In earning Baltimore Sun All-Metro first-team honors last year, he went 33-0 and stormed through the Class 4A-3A 170-pound class at the state tournament with a pin and three technical falls.

At Sparrows Point this season, he's ranked No. 1 by the Maryland State Wrestling Association in the 182-pound class with a 27-0 record that includes six pins and six technical falls. Most impressive, he hasn't surrendered an offensive point to an opponent.

“I first saw him at the state tournament last year and was thinking, ‘Man, a tech fall in the state final is pretty impressive,'?” Sparrows Point coach Mike Whisner said. “And then I did more research and saw he had a pin and three tech falls. For the state finals, that's incredible.”

Smith, a B-plus student, has made his mark at the national level. His breakthrough came last spring with a third-place finish at FloNationals in the 152-pound class. In October, he took third again, in a class of 128 competitors, at the Super 32 Challenge in Greensboro, N.C. The success has earned him a scholarship to wrestle at national power Iowa State.

First, there's work left at No. 5 Sparrows Point, which is in the midst of a 31-5 season. Smith made an immediate impression with his experience and expertise.

His strength is on his feet, where he has 86 takedowns this season. In a highly anticipated match against Dundalk state champion Robert Doetsch on Jan. 3, Smith surgically claimed a dominant 15-5 major decision. All of Doetsch's points came on escapes, with Smith allowing him back up. On Saturday, Smith ground out a 6-1 decision against the state's No. 2-ranked wrestler, St. Paul's sophomore Jack Parr.

“It's exciting to watch him wrestle just to see his movements — his speed, the flow of him wrestling, his fluid moves one after another,” Sparrows Point 138-pounder Max Hammond said. “I think the team has a lot more confidence just knowing we'll have the sure win to back us up. Just having him on the team, knowing we have a stud helps us all.”

Whisner has seen a positive turn this season with Smith's presence. Smith sets a high example with his work ethic, shares his knowledge and his teammates are following his lead.

“He's brought a high level of experience and expertise and the kids see him in the room and they want to be at that level,” Whisner said. “They know he's the real deal and he comes in and with none of the kids being able to touch him, they strive to just get a takedown against him. It's cool to see.”

glenn.graham@baltsun.com

twitter.com/GlennGrahamSun