Samarah Tafiti is ranked as one of the top 30 prep wrestlers in the country at her weight class, and she has already enjoyed a measure of national success.
This weekend, though, the goal for the East Ridge High School senior is simply to establish that she’s the top 165-pound girl in Tennessee this season — and Tafiti will have the chance to do so on the mat, regardless of what any state rankings or bracket seedings say.
While she will command a great deal of respect whenever she competes in the TSSAA girls’ state traditional tournament, which begins Friday and wraps up Saturday at the Williamson County Ag Expo Park in Franklin, Tafiti does have something to prove as she seeks a place atop the medal stand in her final time wearing a Pioneers singlet.
From intense gym workouts with her father Ioelu Tafiti, who was a team captain for the 1999 University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team — which is one reason she can squat 315 pounds and overpower opponents — to the dedication she has shown in the practice room, she has put in the work.
Now she hopes to reap the benefits and become the first state champion in Pioneers girls’ wrestling history, as well as the first wrestling state champion for East Ridge — boys included — since 2014, ending the title drought for a school that has had at least one state qualifier every season since 1963.