Picture this: You are up 13-3 coming out of blood time with 53 seconds left for you to win your first state wrestling title after having finished as a runner-up the previous year.

What do you do?

Ninety-nine percent of wrestlers just go defensive and bleed the clock. Northampton’s Gabe Ballard got in scramble, scored a takedown and notched two nearfall points.

And, he became the Konkrete Kids’ 19th state champion.

“I knew he was going to have a little spurt coming off of that. I just needed to weather it just long enough and then I was able to get another takedown and a cheap tilt. Like Provini says, ‘If there’s time on the clock, you can keep scoring.’,” explained the junior 152-pounder.

Ballard, who wrestled Bethlehem Catholic’s now 4-time state champion Keanu Dillard in the 127-pound final last year, credited that loss with providing the motivation to excel this year.

Ballard expounded, “Losing to Keanu last year really pushed me to that next gear. Made me push harder. Half-days I was just going at it until I was like laying there on the mat gasping for air.”

It was a dominant three days for the K-Kids’ junior. He opened with a 10-4 decision and seemingly got better as the tournament progressed. A 13-2 major in the quarterfinals was topped by a 17-2 tech fall in the semis.

“They’ve definitely been tougher than they looked,” said Ballard. “My first match, I tried a new move where I have a side headlock and I try and jump over. I got hit with a penalty point, so it was kind of a learning experience. I’ve been just trying to keep myself under control and not over pursue and I think that I did that pretty well this weekend.”

The Lehigh commit will come into next season with 121 wins under his belt, 36 shy of surpassing Josh Haines for the most in Northampton history. It will be one last campaign to watch one of the best and most entertaining wrestlers ever to wear the orange and black.