Prairie’s Faith Tarrant made history, becoming Clark County’s first four-time state champion wrestler, while Woodland’s Couly McReynolds and La Center’s Isaac Chromey capped off their senior seasons with titles at the Tacoma Dome over the weekend.
The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association’s (WIAA) Mat Classic state wrestling tournament featured a new format that removed the regionals round and instead brought everybody who made it through districts and crossovers to the Tacoma Dome from Thursday, Feb. 20, through Saturday, Feb. 22.
This season marks the 21st year of girls wrestling statewide after WIAA sanctioned girls wrestling in 2007.
Faith Tarrant
Tarrant felt the weight of history as she became Clark County’s first four-time state champion wrestler. She also becomes just the 24th all time in both boys and girls to complete the feat in the state of Washington.
It took Tarrant just a minute and 24 seconds to pin her opponent, Olivia Hudson, of Oak Harbor, for the 235-pound crown in girls 3A wrestling. The win by pin marked Tarrant’s 114th career pin with a record of 116-3. Her three losses all came during her freshman year.
After the win, one of Tarrant’s arms was raised into the air as she held up four fingers on the other hand while sporting a huge smile.
Then, the emotion of the moment hit.
“I don’t even have words,” Tarrant said, overcome with emotion coming off the victory. “... I worked so hard for this. I just can’t believe it happened. I’m so grateful.”
The realization and emotion of the moment came earlier for Tarrant after her semifinal win as she was tearful having secured her spot in the final match. The four-peat pressure was looming, but the confidence was there the entire time from herself and her coaches.
“100% confidence in her winning out,” Prairie wrestling head coach Rob Smith said. “She’s been doing it for years, so there’s no question that she was going to come in and be Faith and do her thing. She walked through those doors as a freshman, and we always talked about young kids coming here and it’s this huge building and all these mats and all these people, and she walked in here and she looked at me and she goes, ‘Coach, I got this.’”
As Tarrant has stood on top of the podium four times in the Tacoma Dome, it has become a familiar feeling.
“Walking into the Tacoma Dome, I don’t know, it feels like home,” she said. “There’s no other place like it.”
Now that her high school career has concluded, the program will certainly miss her, and she’ll miss the program. Smith said the growth in the number of girls competing for Prairie wrestling in the last four years can be attributed to Tarrant.
Prairie girls coach Cailey Mendez said she will miss Tarrant’s attitude and personality, which lights up any room she is in.
“I’ve had a lot of girls come through the program, and it seems like the bubbly personalities are really hard to come by sometimes, you know,” Mendez said. “A lot of them as freshmen, they come in, they’re so quiet and calm and collected. And then you have Faith who’s just this bubbly, outgoing, like ‘come in here, I’m going to take a picture with all of you.’ And so I’m definitely going to miss her bubbly attitude on the team and keeping everybody’s spirits up.”
Often, a wrestler will come up through a local youth program, but not Faith, who showed up to Prairie High School her freshman year from Colorado.
Smith said that wrestling was “yeah, maybe,” from Tarrant her freshman year after just arriving at a new school. Since then, Tarrant has become the most decorated girls wrestler in Falcon history.
Couly McReynolds
This time around at the Tacoma Dome, the 2A girls branched off from 1A, 2B and 1B to join 3A and 4A as classifications with their own girls wrestling state championship brackets. That’s where Woodland’s Couly McReynolds shined with a first-round pin and backflip celebration to cap off her senior year in the Tacoma Dome.
After falling out of title contention at the Braided 64 Kelso girls wrestling tournament earlier in the season, McReynolds was looking forward to the postseason, as she was the highest placing girl in 2A at 115 pounds.
She completed the state title bid in under a minute with a 51-second pin of Centralia’s Eva Reinitz and completed the season 39-5 with 20 pins.
“It just kind of feels surreal,” McReynolds said of her title the next morning. “Like, I keep going back and watching all my matches and stuff. It’s just crazy to think that actually happened, because now that it's me, it feels awesome still, but last year when I doubled out or something and I was watching the finals, I’m like, ‘Dang, these girls are crazy.’ ”
McReynolds said the atmosphere of the Tacoma Dome made her even more stoked as she took to the mat for the last time in her high school career.
Isaac Chromey
When Isaac Chromey won the boys 165-pound bracket at the Clark County Championships last month, he said all he cared about was winning the state championship. That came to fruition in the 175-pound 1A state championship match with an 11-2 major over Trico League foe Mason Darvel, of Castle Rock.
Chromey finished the season 44-8 and won the Wyatt Draper Memorial Invite in the 190-pound division, the Clark County at 165-pounds and the big dance in the Tacoma Dome at 175-pound to cap off his senior campaign.
