This year, Bakersfield College’s wrestling team is already off to a better start than last year with all their weight classes filled and more depth.
Last year they ended up placing sixth in state with four All-Americans and this year’s wrestling team has 10 wrestlers returning from last year, including Quinn Moore, a heavyweight who finished third in the State Championships last year.
“I realistically believe that we can be a top-five team. It won’t be easy, but it’s possible,” wrestling coach Bill Kalivas said. “Our goal is to keep improving on our skills and we need to eliminate mistakes and the wins will take care of itself.
“As a whole, we need to be accountable and need better balance because last year we depended too much on our better wrestlers.”
According to Kalivas, the most impressive newcomers this year are two wrestlers from Lemoore: Lance Castaneda and Jacob Pendelton.
Both are in the 174 weight class, but Kalivas is open to that changing.
Last year the wrestling team didn’t have all the weight classes filled, but so far this year they do.
“As of now, our weight classes have been filled, but you don’t know if someone might not like it or find out it’s not for them,” Kalivas said. “But I think that depth will help our team so we can keep improving.”
The team gets a chance to see how they matchup against the best because they will start off their season with the Bakersfield Duals here at BC, that will include Santa Ana who two years ago were the state champs, Cuesta College who got fifth last year, Mt. SAC, and East Los Angeles. The tournament will be held on Sept. 24.