Clare Booe proves she’s the real deal at Fargo
Clare Booe dominated her competition in Fargo. (Photo courtesy of Ward Wrestling)
BY BRANT PARSONS — Clare Booe was eager to show that last year was no fluke.
Heading into this year’s 2023 US Marine Corps 16U & Junior Nationals in Fargo, N.D. as a defending national champion, Booe knew she would have a chance to show that her national title in 2022 was just the beginning.
“The first time I won was neat because nobody really expected that from me and it was a huge upset,” Booe said. “This year’s (title) felt like validation — like I’m going to be around here for a while and I’m doing things right.”
Booe won her second national title with a victory at 112 pounds in the junior freestyle competition last weekend. She won the 106-pound title last summer.
While going 6-0 at this year’s tournament, she won two matches by pin and four by technical fall - and outscored her opponents by a combined 63-7. She also defeated three ranked wrestlers enroute to the repeat.
The title last season came after Booe won a FHSAA state title for Palm Harbor University in the first sanctioned season of girls wrestling in the state, this year’s came after she won a national title for her new school, Wyoming Seminary in Pennsylvania.
Despite her new school’s address, she’s still a Florida girl.
“My home is Florida,” Booe said. “It’s where my parents live and it is so awesome to get to represent where I’ve grown up and learned my wrestling. I feel like there’s something to Florida grit and that it’s being shown and I’m glad I get to be a part of that.”
Clare Booe overpowered her opponent, South Carolina’s Zao Estrada, in the national freestyle final at 112 pounds. (Photo courtesy of SEWrestle)
The move to Wyoming Seminary wasn’t easy at first for Booe, who battled homesickness as she settled into life at the boarding school.
“It was a hard transition for me,” Booe said. “I hadn’t been away from my family like that before and I’m a big family person.”
She found her way through wrestling.
The girls on the Wyoming Seminary team were very welcoming to her and she thrived in the room, being able to focus every day on freestyle and always having girls her size and weight to train with each day.
Booe also found herself excelling academically and finding little ways to battle through missing the Sunshine State.
Along with lots of calls and facetiming her family at least once a week, Booe found a taste of home in her ceramics class.
“My teacher was so nice and always had a smile on her face,” Booe said. “And she had the best 70s playlist ever - I remember going into her room and it would be a hard day and I’d almost feel like I was at home in her room because she had this music and I found that if I listened to some music it would help with the homesickness.”
When the rising senior returns to Wyoming Seminary this fall, she will continue work toward her final high school season and hopefully making a world team, and she will also compete at Who’s Number One, an event she earned a golden ticket to at Fargo.
But first, she gets some much-needed family time.
She’ll take a couple weeks off and take a trip to California with her family. When she gets back, she’ll start ramping up her training while soaking up time with her siblings.
“Home is not really where you’re at but who you’re with,” Booe said. “I really appreciate my family and all they do me and it’s really important to me to have that family bond and make sure that I’m close with them.”
“Without my family, like would be a lot less meaningful.”
MORE FROM CLARE BOOE
On being a wrestling ambassador: “I try to talk about it in a positive aspect. Wrestling is something I think people can enjoy and it’s fun to show up and work with a bunch of people and learn new things. Being a role model for other women is another thing that I have appreciated doing. When people tell me they look up to me or younger girls tell me that they want to do what I’ve done it makes me smile to know that I get to be out there doing things that hopefully inspire other people.”
On what wrestling has meant to her: “It gives me something to pour myself into and prove that I’m a hardworking person and that my aspirations and goal are something that drives me and I’m willing to work for it. I feel like I’ve met so many great women, wrestlers, and coaches within the sport and got to meet a lot of good people in the world. I feel like wrestling has given to me in that way.”
On having fun: “Whenever they play a song that I like, I sing along and I dance — my rhythm and singing are not my best-known qualities. I like to have fun with that. I feel like I’m always smiling and making some funny dad jokes that people will either shake their head out or laugh. I just like to make sure everyone’s not taking things too seriously”
