Bakersfield College wrestling traveled to the Santa Ana tournament on Oct. 3 and the wrestling varied for the Renegades, as 165-pound Alvaro Zermeno and 197-pound Brad Carls were the only to place in the top 4 of the weight classes. BC’s Vince Rivera started out well, but caught the flu during the tournament and lost the rest of his matches.
“We wrestled pretty well – we did a good job. We made some mistakes in some matches we should have won but on the whole I was pleased,” said BC coach Bill Kalivas.
Kalivas added, “[It’s] early in the season, things will get better. We still have some people, still experimenting with their line-up. Seeing who is going to go where [in weight classes].”
Kalivas noted Rivera’s illness, as he said, “One of our guys came down with the flu during the tournament and he wrestled extremely well.”
BC finished eighth out of seventeen teams at Santa Ana.
The team’s Oct. 2 East L.A. tournament was cancelled due to East L.A.’s team battling an infection.
“We couldn’t wrestle the dual because they had a lot of skin infections. We had some too. They chose for the better part trying not to spread any more [infection],” said Kalivas. Kalivas added, “We might make it up later in the year.”
BC held its annual Bakersfield duals on Sept. 26 and held their own against Cuesta, West Hills, and East L.A. BC placed second behind Mt. San Antonio College.
BC wrestler Vince Rivera won all of his matches during the BC duals against West Hills’ Francisco Amador, East L.A.’s John Briggs, Mt. SAC’s Troy Archuleta, and Cuesta’s Max Kincaid, by scores of 9-6, 15-3, 11-10 and by pin, respectively.
197-pound Brad Carls defeated MT. SAC’s Julian Silva 12-2 and won 12-0 over Cuesta’s Jack Robinett.
Kalivas expressed how he felt about the home opener for BC duals.
“For us starting out, and getting an idea of our travel squad. We wrestled extremely well – we did some positive things. It’s disappointing because some guys come out with a different mentality and we’ve had some people decide if they were going to red shirt or not, compete anymore because they feel they were [not] making any progress.”
Kalivas added, “Other than that, we weren’t disappointed in that – a close loss to Mt. SAC.” Kalivas made it clear how the team and coaches see their season.
“We predicate our season based on what happens at the championships, not anything else.”
The BC team travels to the West Valley tournament on Oct. 10 and the North/South meet on Oct. 24 in Monterey.