It’s only fitting that it was Riley-Anne Tarmey to do it for Triton.
The wrestler who has already made so much history during her three-year career for the Vikings.
Now when any future female wrestlers join the program, they’ll be aspiring to match what Tarmey has been able to accomplish. Down in Rhode Island this weekend for the New England Championship, the junior placed fourth in her 100-pound weight class to become Triton’s first ever female placer at the heralded and exclusive event. Tarmey has incredibly done the difficult task of just qualifying for New England’s all three years of her high school career now, and becomes the program’s first overall placer there since former legend Luke Boyle earned the presitgous title of New England Champion back in 2015.
“She had a great junior year,” said Hall of Fame Triton coach Shawn McElligott. “I expect her to again work hard all summer, and I’m looking forward to see what she’s able to do her senior year.”
Check out this pattern.
Freshman year: Tarmey won one match at New England’s.
Sophomore year: Tarmey went 2-2 at New England’s.
Now junior year: Tarmey goes 4-2 at New England’s to place fourth.
Each year, she just gets better and better.
Tarmey was seeded fourth heading into this year’s tournament, and opened her run by pinning Sienna Poireir of Bristol Central, CT in 79 seconds. That set up a quarterfinals match against Ella Paris of Salem, N.H., and despite earning a late reversal to bring it back to 9-4, Tarmey was pinned early in the third period. Paris would go on to be crowned the New England Champion, and would finish her season with just one loss — which, ironically, came against Tarmey in the finals of the popular Lowell Holiday Tournament.
So revenge was earned.
But Tarmey was able to quickly rebound, ending her Day 1 of New England’s by earning a second-period pin of Elisha Marfil of Ashland. Then coming back for Day 2 on Sunday, another second-period pin of Isha Khanna of Westhill, CT sent Tarmey moving on to the consolation bracket semifinals. Which is where she arguably wrestled her best match, completely controlling Abigail Garland of Mt. Blue, ME to earn the 9-0 major decision.
“Her best match of her career was that consolation semifinal,” said McElligott. “She was dominant, smart, and in control of the whole match.”
It all pushed Tarmey to the third-place bout, where she fell to No. 2 seed Sophia Gordon of South Windsor, CT by a 15-0 technical fall. Gordon, a senior, was the 100-pound runner-up a year ago, so Tarmey’s two losses this weekend came to the eventual champion, and to last year’s silver medalist.
“Riley wrestled a great tournament,” said McElligott. “Even in her loss to Ella, the eventual champion, it was a back-and-forth match the entire way.”
Truly, what a year it was for Tarmey.
Her junior season comes to an end with a 41-5 record, and she now sits with an overall three-year career mark of 88-19. The two-time Daily News All-Star (likely three-time in short order) became Triton’s first Lowell Holiday champion since 1985 this winter, and was also the Massachusetts All-State Champion and the Division 3 State Champion.