16-Year-Old Tarpon Springs Girl Named USA Women's Wrestling Champion

PALM HARBOR, FL — Clare Booe of Tarpon Springs will return to the classroom this week with a souvenir that will be pretty hard for her classmates to top.

The 105-pound, 16-year-old incoming junior took home the top award in her weight class at the USA Wrestling Junior Women Freestyle National Championship in Fargo, North Dakota, July 19 and 20, accepting the first-place plaque for the 106-pound weight class that was nearly as heavy as the petite teen.

Back in her usual street clothes at her home in Tarpon Springs, people meeting her the first time would be hard-pressed to guess they're standing in front of a powerhouse on the wrestling mat, ranked top 10 in the country.

Booe has repeatedly made headlines over the past several years for her wins in matches throughout the state and country. And to think, she never really considered wrestling before moving to Florida.

"Originally, I lived in Minnesota and my dad said, 'Hey, why don't you try out judo?' And so I did judo for a while, and then we moved to Florida."

However, there were few opportunities to pursue judo in Tarpon Springs, so, once again, her dad, Keith, had an idea. Keith Booe had wrestled in high school and suggested she give it a try.

"I said 'OK' and I tried it out and fell in love with it," she said

At first, she trained and wrestled with boys travel teams through Canes Wrestling Club in Palm Harbor, in the absence of any organized girls teams.

Then, in June 2020, the Florida High School Athletic Association finally caught up with the rest of the country and sanctioned girls wrestling, giving Booe a chance to wrestle through her school, Palm Harbor University High School, against other girls in the state.

Since then, Booe has been amassing honors, including:

• Fourth in the 2021 16U Folkstyle Nationals
• Fourth place in the 2021 in 16U Nationals
• Seventh place in the 2021 Junior Nationals
• Seventh in 2021 National Recruiting Showcase
• Champion of the 2021 Southeast Junior Regional champion in freestyle and Greco-Roman
• Fifth in 2022 U17 Nationals
• Fourth in the 2022 National Recruiting Showcase

As a 105-pound sophomore, she became the 2022 Florida state champion with a 31-0 record, topping her previous Florida state championship in 2021 as a 100-pound freshman.

She said she owes her success to the support of her parents, Keith and Jerri Booe, as well as some top-notch coaches who graciously took her under their wings.

"My parents have given me a lot of opportunities," Booe said. "I've gone to a lot of camps and I even got to travel to a camp in Italy a week before this (the USA Wrestling Junior National Championship)."

She admits odds weren't in her favor as she headed into national competition July 19-20.

"I was kind of the underdog," she said.

However, intensive training sessions with four-time Illinois state wrestling champ and current college wrestling coach Conor Beebe before competition in Fargo boosted her confidence.

"All the work I've done just really paid off," she said. "I've made a lot of small adjustments that really changed the big game."

Keith Booe said he was amazed by the improvement his daughter showed after each training session. He not only credits Beebe but attributes her success to Max Kafka, co-founder of the Grappler Station in St. Paul, Minnesota; nationally known mixed martial arts trainer Rhadi Ferguson who "showed her it's OK to put all your eggs in one basket just in case you get the opportunity to do something special; Orlando mixed martial arts trainer Matt Avramidis who "made her believe she could be a champion; the late professional wrestler, Steve Hall, who "gave our family the blueprint for taking in all the opportunities USA wrestling tournaments have to offer; and Clare Booe's hero, Gaither High School graduate Daisy Santos, who went on to become a 2017-18 All-American women's wrestler at King University in Bristol, Tennessee, and returned to Tampa after graduating to coach girls interested in wrestling.

On Tuesday night, the Tarpon Spring City Commission and Mayor Costa Vatikiotis honored Booe, noting that while spending countless hours training and competing, she also maintained a 4.3 grade point average.

"She works tirelessly because she loves wrestling. As a dad, I will be forever grateful to everyone that puts wind in her sails as she attempts to go wherever she’s going," Keith Booe commented.

As for where she's headed next, Booe said she wouldn't turn down an offer to wrestle on a Women's World Championship wrestling team.