On Saturday, Feb. 7, the wrestling team placed eighth at the Peninsula Athletic League (PAL) Championships, closing out its season. The team finished with only one dual meet loss and qualified eight wrestlers for the Central Coast Section (CCS) Northern Regional tournament, showing promise for the future of the program.

After a season fraught with ups and downs, general impressions were mixed. Despite the various obstacles the team had to overcome, coach Ernesto Nuñez said many of the wrestlers’ work throughout the season paid off.

“There were a couple of wrestlers in particular that got better every tournament they wrestled in, and it showed at the league finals, at PALs,” Nuñez said. “So on that front, all the tournaments we spend our time going to throughout the year, they’re to get you ready and prepared for the PALs and CCS finals. The wrestlers improved the way they were supposed to, they got better at the right time, they started peaking at the right time.”

He also said he was pleased with the performance of several varsity wrestlers who will be moving on to CCS.

“I’m proud of them. They work hard to get there,” Nuñez said. “But again, there’s always room for improvement. There’s always more room just to get better. But I am happy with how many we got in.”

However, Nuñez said the team’s roster problems, which they’ve struggled with all season, proved to be a major challenge in the PAL championships.

“We went in with nine varsity boy wrestlers and four girls, and all four medaled, which is awesome,” Nuñez said. “But if anything hurt us at PALs, it was our overall numbers.”

Sophomore Nora Scopazzi, who placed first in her weight class at the PAL championships and will compete in the CCS Northern Regional tournament, said poor attendance added to the team’s challenges. She added that some measures could be taken to address these problems in the future.

“Making everyone come on time, and being really strict about it, because a lot of people wouldn’t show up, and then they wouldn’t show up at the tournament, and then it was just bad,” Scopazzi said.

Nuñez echoed that point, citing a lack of commitment to the sport as a larger problem.

“I need to focus on those that want to be here, to stop spreading our coaching staff so thin, trying to accommodate everybody,” Nuñez said. “So I think next year, we’ll do just that. We’ll focus on the wrestlers that want to be here as much as the coaches want to be here. And I think we’ll get a better end product.”

The wrestlers who qualified for CCS Northern Regionals will continue preparing for the tournament, which will take place on Saturday, Feb. 14.

“Just going into practice, knowing what I have to work on, and just having fun and staying confident,” Scopazzi said.

Nuñez shared similar sentiments, focusing on constant improvement to help wrestlers go as far as possible.

“Keep training hard, working hard, working situations that we need to get better on,” Nuñez said.