FARGO, N.D. >> Jasmin Clarke didn’t come away with back-to-back national titles, but the Kelseyville High School junior wrestler had a pretty good run during the week-long Cadet/Junior National Women’s Championships at the Fargodome in Fargo, North Dakota.
So did Lower Lake High School’s Blake Fredrickson, also an incoming junior. Clarke and Fredrickson came away from Fargo as two-time All-Americans, the result of placing in the top eight in two different divisions. So impressive were their performances that thecaliforniawrestler.com cited the two as among the California wrestlers who increased their stock the most at the nation’s most prestigious youth wrestling tournament.
Jasmin Clarke
Clarke, a two-time section medalist and state qualifier for the Kelseyville High School squad, won the Cadet National 200-pound freestyle title early last week after winning all four of her matches, three of them in convincing fashion. Moving up a division and a weight class to the Junior National 225-pound freestyle competition, Clarke won each of her first two matches before falling to Pittsburg’s Arianna Cobian, a fellow Team California member, by fall 1:56 into the first round of their championship match on Friday.
Clarke overpowered Maria Chanady of Illinois by 19-4 technical fall in a first-round match and then upset ShaMiia Wells of Tennessee, pinning her in the semifinals after building a 6-0 lead.
Cobian beat Khadeja Ayer of New York in the other semifinal. She had an 8-0 lead against Clarke before pinning her Kelseyville opponent.
Blake Fredrickson
Fredrickson finished eighth in the 106-pound Junior boys freestyle division early last week. He opened the Junior Greco-Roman portion of the tournament by reaching the 106-pound quarterfinals where he lost to Brendon Garcia of Colorado by fall. He advanced through the consolation bracket to reach the medal round and finished sixth on Saturday.
Like Kelseyville’s Clarke, Fredrickson is a two-time section medalist for the Trojans. As a freshman he broke the school record for most wins in a season and he is on a pace to become the school’s all-time victories leader.
Blake has two younger brothers, Jonathan and Austin, who are also accomplished wrestlers. Jonathan will be entering Lower Lake as a freshman next month while Austin is starting the eighth grade.
