For a whole year, Riley-Anne Tarmey has carried the heartbreak.
All told, there was a whole lot to be proud about over the Triton wrestler’s sophomore season last year, which ended with her second straight trip to the New England Championships — where she went 2-2 to finish in the top-8 — and her second straight Daily News All-Star nod. But in the 100-pound girls finals at last winter’s All-State meet, her opponent earned an escape with five seconds left, and walked away the champion with the 1-point decision win.
Tarmey of course still got the silver medal, but it was a crushing result all the same.
And she spent the entire offseason training to never let that happen again.
Flash forward to this year’s All-State Meet, which took place across Sunday and Monday at the MassMutual Center out in Springfield, and Tarmey earned her own personal redemption. The junior dominated her way to an All-State championship after entering as the No. 1 seed in the 100-pound weight class, and in the process punched her ticket to her unprecedented third straight New England Championship across her first three years of wrestling in high school.
“She used (last year at All-States) as motivation during the offseason,” said Triton coach Shawn McElligott. “She wrestled in multiple offseason tournaments (such as FARGO), and worked out at Doughboys. She did all of the right things. … I’m so proud of her. She worked hard, always did the right thing, and was mentally tough making weight at 100 and still wrestling guys at 106.
“She earned this title.”
And there’s really no other word you can use to describe her performance other than: Dominant.
After earning a bye to the quarterfinals as the top seed, Tarmey opened her All-State run with a 16-0 technical fall over Kylah Bragan of Whittier Tech. Then in the semis, she earned a quick takedown for the 3-0 lead, before pinning Jocelyn Mendoza of Springfield Central in just 58 seconds. That all set up a finals match against No. 2 seed Allana Garcia of Greater Lawrence, and Tarmey was in complete control the entire match on her way to earning an 8-0 major decision victory.
And with it, the title of All-State Champion.
“She didn’t give up a single point across three matches,” said McElligott.
Tarmey will now head into New England’s next weekend with a sparkling 37-3 overall record on the season (84-17 for her three-year career). Her three losses this winter are all against boys: Once after bumping up to 113, and then in both the CAL/NEC Open final and the Division 3 North final.
Then Triton had two other wrestlers qualify and compete at All-States.
Austin Scolamiero went 0-2 at 132 in a pair of competitive matches, and ends his impressive sophomore season with a 34-13 record. But this all comes after he placed third at the Division 3 North Sectional, and fifth at the State Meet over the past couple of weeks.
“He joins names like (former program greats) the Boyles, Anthony Ostrander and Jared Durkin as sophomores who have qualified and competed at All-States,” said McElligott. “That is a pretty good group to be associated with, and hopefully Austin will use this experience to continue working hard into the offseason.”
Finally, to wrap up, freshman Madison Marino went 0-2. The Triton girls ended up finishing 20th out of 69 scoring teams with 31.5 points.