Kelseyville High’s Clarke wins national wrestling title; Garcia set to compete Wednesday
- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – Two talented Kelseyville High School wrestlers are competing among the nation’s best in North Dakota, with one of them capturing a national title on Tuesday.
Jasmin Clarke and Alex Garcia are in Fargo with Kelseyville High School wrestling Coach Orlando Zarate to compete at the U.S. Marine Corps Junior and Cadet Nationals, which Zarate said is known as the toughest high school tournament in the country.
On Monday and Tuesday, Clarke put on a fierce performance to win the 2017 Women’s Freestyle Cadet Nationals title for the 200 pound weight class, the top class for the cadet division, which primarily covers freshmen and sophomores, Zarate said.
“She did it,” said an elated Zarate.
“I came here to win,” Clarke said in a video interview, which can be seen below, following her title win.
She attributed her success to “mental toughness,” and said she set out to be prepared to meet “the hardest wrestler out there.”
Clarke said of her drive for the national championship, “I have to do it for my brother,” referring to her older brother, John Paul, who died in 2015.
Clarke, 16, will be a junior this fall at Kelseyville High. Zarate said she’s been wrestling since she was in middle school.
She has become California’s 13th Cadet national champion, he added.
In order to qualify, Clarke won the state championship for freestyle in May in Fresno, according to Zarate.
Garcia, who also will be a junior this fall at Kelseyville High, is a cadet-level wrestler in the 140-pound weight class. Zarate said Garcia also won a state title, in his case for Greco-Roman wrestling in June.
Wrestling is a tradition in Garcia’s family. He’s been wrestling since he was a kindergarten. His father, Adam, grew up and wrestled in Lake County, and is the co-coach of the Kelseyville High wrestling team along with Zarate.
“Our little county produces really good wrestlers now,” Zarate said.
Zarate said they’ve been doing off-season training in order to prepare for the national competition.
Regarding Clarke, Zarate said he’s been working with her three days a week. “She’s been sticking with it all this time.”
Zarate and Clarke’s father, John, accompanied the two young wrestlers to North Dakota for the competition.
“It is huge,” Zarate said of the event, noting there are 24 mats going in the stadium.
Zarate said Clarke had a good week of practices leading up to the competition.
He said she told him she thought she could win. “She’s slowly started believing it.”
Clarke began her competition on Monday morning, with three matches. In her first match of the day, against Sydney Fenus from Texa, Clarke won by pin, Zarate said.
Then, in her second match she pinned Ryan Schlereth of Missouri to win, Zarate said. That was Clarke’s shortest match, as well as the shortest match in the tournament, at just 41 seconds.
Clarke’s third match, also on Monday, was against Virginia resident Taja Showers, who Zarate said is the seventh-ranked high school wrestler in the country in the 200-pound weight class.
It turned out to be Clarke’s toughest match, yet Zarate said she won by a 5-0 decision.
Then, on Tuesday morning, Clarke wrestled Tionna Collins from Kentucky, winning by another pin, Zarate said.
Although she has a national championship in hand, Clarke is hardly done at the tournament.
On Wednesday she’ll move up into the juniors division and compete against high school juniors and seniors, Zarate said.
“She wants to go in and obviously do well,” Zarate said.
He said Clarke may meet up with the country’s No. 1 seed in the 200-pound weight class, Corey Burton, another Californian who has beat Clarke in a previous match.
Clarke told her coach that she believes this is her time. “I think right now she’s seeing what she could be,” he said.
Zarate said wrestling will start at 7 a.m. Wednesday.
Not only with Clarke be back on the mat, but on Wednesday Garcia also will take to the mat to start his part of the competition.
The tournament continues through the end of the week, with the Kelseyville wrestlers to return on Friday night, Zarate said.
In the interview after her win, Clarke explained, “I was looking forward to this national championship, and putting my little town on the mat … the map,” she said, correcting herself.
As it turns out, in the wrestling world, she did both.
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