Senior from Prairie, Faith Tarrant has won three consecutive state championships and is using the prestigious Pac Coast Wrestling Championships — Friday and Saturday at the Clark County Event Center — to help prepare her for state later this season

Paul Valencia
ClarkCountyToday.com

One of the biggest sporting events in Clark County got even bigger the last couple of years when the Pac Coast Wrestling Championships moved to the Clark County Event Center in Ridgefield. 

More teams. More wrestlers.

Oh, and with the added space, organizers added girls wrestling to the schedule.

This year, for the first time, the Prairie girls are among the 40 or so girls teams at the prestigious event, led by three-time state champion Faith Tarrant.

“I think it’s really cool that Clark County gets to showcase all this girls wrestling,” Tarrant said Friday morning just prior to the start of the two-day competition. 

The Pac Coast Wrestling Championships are hosted every year by Evergreen’s wrestling program and boosters. Years ago, it was held at Evergreen High School when the campus still had the large fieldhouse gym. After a renovation, the gym space was too small for the big event. Pac Coast was moved to Hudson’s Bay High School Then last year, in part because officials wanted to add girls wrestling, the championships moved to the fairgrounds in Ridgefield.

Day 2 of the Pac Coast is Saturday, with wrestling all day. Wrestling fans understand it is tough to schedule precisely when championship finals will be held. After all, there are more than 60 boys teams and 45 girls teams at this year’s event. Organizers told Clark County Today that championship finals will likely be held at 6 or 7 p.m. Saturday, but to be safe, get there earlier.

At Pac Coast, fans will be able to take in an incredible atmosphere of wrestling, with 14 mats and action almost from wall to wall.

“This is crazy. This room is huge,” Tarrant said. “When I walked in, I was like ‘Whoa.’”

Tarrant and the girls who have wrestled before her over the past two decades have been the leaders in this growth spurt for wrestling. A couple of years ago, the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association added a second classification for girls wrestling. The numbers just keep getting bigger and bigger.

Tarrant said she loves being a part of something so special, “watching females make it bright, happy and fun.”

On the mat, her opponents don’t have as much fun.

Tarrant moved to Washington from Colorado her freshman year and was a virtual unknown. She had taken a year or so away from wrestling before being convinced to join the Prairie program. She was welcomed with open arms by all associated with Prairie wrestling, and she has rewarded that love and friendship with three consecutive state championships.

She describes her teammates, and the extended wrestling community, as her “family,” adding that the sport has given her everything.

The goal, of course, is to become a four-time state champion.

“The whole thing with wrestling is you have to keep working hard. As soon as you start slacking off …” Tarrant said, stopping herself from completing the sentence. 

She doesn’t even want to think about slowing down. 

“Being a state champion, you’re the person to beat. Everybody’s watching you. Everybody’s training to beat you. So I have to make sure I stay humble and know that anybody can beat me. I have to make sure I’m doing all the right things,” she said.

Staying healthy helps, too. This past summer, Tarrant suffered an injury, causing her to miss the biggest national event of the summer in Fargo, N.D. It also got her a little worried about her upcoming senior season.

“I was so nervous. ‘This can’t be happening to me right now,’” she said. “You never think it’s you until it’s you. It was crazy. I was shocked.”

The injury has healed, and she returned to wrestling for Prairie this winter sports season.

Wrestling at Pac Coast is a special deal for her senior year. She said she saw a lot of wrestlers from other parts of the state Friday morning, and Tarrant said it was cool that those standouts are wrestling right here in Clark County this weekend.

Long term, of course, the goal is to be peaking in February at the Tacoma Dome during Mat Classic.

“I don’t want to get too excited, but it would be amazing,” she said of a potential fourth state title. “I don’t even know what I’d do. I’ll probably cry.”

But again, she does not assume anything. She is No. 1 in her weight class, she enjoys having the target on her back, but she takes nothing for granted.

“It keeps me on my toes,” Tarrant said. “I constantly have to change my style or learn new wrestling moves.”