Bakersfield College wrestler Vince Rivera, 133 pounds, won all of his matches at Western State Conference finals as he beat his three opponents from West Hills, Cuesta and Rio Hondo in the Western State Championships Nov. 7.

BC placed second behind Rio Hondo, which defeated BC in their dual. The loss to Rio Hondo was BC’s only dual loss of the day.

Renegade John Dickerson, 125 pounds, defeated Cuesta’s Pat Mendoza 9-4 and Rio Hondo’s Anthony Gonzalez 12-2.

BC teammate Alvaro Zermeno, 165 pounds, defeated Rio Hondo’s Jeff Blanco 6-5, Cuesta’s John Bake 11-0 and West Hills’ Brian Eskew.

BC’s top two wrestlers, A.J. Smith (174) and Brad Carls (197), were both injured and did not compete in the WSC championships.

BC heavyweight Antonio Hernandez was academically ineligible to participate.

“A.J. Smith and Brad Carls were the number one ranked people in the state in their respective weight classes,” said BC coach Bill Kalivas.

Kalivas said about the WSC championship results for BC, “We were a little disappointed. We’ve got our two number one-ranked guys out with injuries . and the thing that makes it difficult is that we lost our number one heavyweight, Antonio [Hernandez].”

“We wound up losing to Rio Hondo, who’s a defending [Western State Conference] champion 25-19. You can’t give up 18 [points] and expect to be successful,” said Kalivas about losing Carls, Hernandez and Smith.

Kalivas mentioned how skin infections were affecting the team.

“Continued viral infections – it’s not getting worse but just about time we’ve cleared up with one person, another person [is infected].”

Kalvias added, “The problem behind is that we can’t get a hold of it all the time. It’s a nightmare sometimes.”

BC missed the north/south all-star meet Oct. 31 due to skin infections.

Kalivas talked about the coming weeks to the southern regional finals Dec. 5.

“Hopefully, we’ll get everybody back in the next couple weeks, and that’s the way it’s going to go.”

Kalvias spoke about the Dec. 12-13 California community college championships, “I think we’ll be fine when we get to state [championships]. It’s just going to take us a little time [to heal].”

BC competed in the Cerritos open tournament Nov. 14, but according to Kalivas, was to see where BC is at.

“We’re still a little beat up,” said Kalivas. “We’ll see. We’re going to revaluate this week, if we’re going to Fullerton [open tournament] or not. It’s been an unpredictable year, to say the least.”

The Cal State Fullerton open tournament is Nov. 21.