ORANGE — The seventh annual Mahar Girls Wrestling Tournament was a smashing success on Monday. 

After having over 150 athletes compete last year, the tournament — which takes place each year on Martin Luther King Day — saw 54 teams from all over New England show up to Orange on Monday, as the tournament continues to grow each year. 

Having an all-girl tournament locally helps promote the sport in the area, giving girls an opportunity to compete and be recognized. 

“We went to a tournament in Agawam and it was a lot smaller than this,” Franklin Tech’s Mia Marigliano said. “There was the same amount of people but it was split into boys and girls. Having all girls here from all around Massachusetts, New Hampshire, all over is awesome. It makes the tournament more challenging.

It’s hard being a girl wrestler sometimes,” Marigliano added, “so having things like this to get the recognition is great. It promotes the sport.” 

Marigliano helped the Eagles secure a fourth-place team finish at the tournament after she placed second overall at 126. Marigliano earned a win via forfeit before coming away with a pair of wins to earn a spot in the finals, where she fell to Wilmington’s Hannah Bryson. 

Franklin Tech’s Jacqueline Churchill picked up a win over South Shore’s Gianna Cycan to walk away with a fourth-place finish at 235. 

Churchill noted how much better the competition is here than at most other meets during the season. 

“You get better matches in this tournament,” Churchill said. “Everyone comes together during this tournament.” 

Eagle Anaray Yang went 1-3 on the day, securing a win over Malden’s Audrey Nguyen at 126. 

Yang mentioned the community vibe at the Mahar Girls Wrestling Tournament and how competitors cheer each other on and encourage each other throughout. 

“It definitely feels like there’s more girls here this year,” Yang said. “They keep getting stronger and stronger. This tournament helps the community. When you go to huge tournaments with a ton of teams nobody is interacting or talking. At the girls tournaments I’ve noticed there’s a lot more community where everyone is cheering for each other.”

Mahar’s Delana Fausett is in her first year wrestling and says she has been gaining confidence by the practice. 

On Monday, Fausett picked up a win over Malden’s Nora Hounain to reach the semifinals at 165. She had a tight loss to Scituate’s Maura Pendergast in those semis and would go on to take sixth place. 

“I started about a month ago,“ Fausett said. “It’s a lot to take in. I have some history in jiu-jitsu but it’s different. Going into this sport I didn’t realize how much of a wait there was between the matches. It’s way more time than we have between dual meets. That was interesting but it’s been fun.” 

With this being her first all-girls meet, Fausett noted how well connected the community is. 

“The culture and the kindness is wonderful,” Fausett said. “It’s something I wasn’t expecting going into this sport. Everyone feels like family based on how everyone gets along. It’s cool seeing hundreds of girls here participating here.” 

Fellow Senator Nicole Bezio-Patterson competed at 107, falling in her two matches. 

Jocelyn Antes represented Frontier on Monday, competing at 120. She went 2-2 on the day, earning wins over Hampden Charter’s Madison Skog and Bristol County’s Hannah Dyckman.  

“It went OK,” Antes said. “I had a few good matches and a few bad matches.”

After having competed in the annual tournament the past few years, Antes said how much it has grown and how she expects it to continue growing in the future. 

“It was a little bit smaller last year,” Antes said. “It’s definitely grown. There’s a lot more girls around all over the state. It’s exciting.” 

Lowell took first place as a team, followed by Tri-County in second and Oliver Ames in third.