Five wrestlers move forward to State Championships

PASO ROBLES — Over the weekend on Feb. 18, the Paso Robles High School wrestling teams competed in the CIF Masters in Lemoore and placed 12th out of 70 teams in the central division.

Five of the team’s male wrestlers survived the blood round and will be moving on to the State CIF Championships in Bakersfield this weekend: Peyton Kilber (152 lbs.), Leo Kemp (220), Christian Davidson (195), Reily Lowry (170), and Joe Ciccarelli (160) all placed in the top 10.

During the Feb. 22 school board meeting, the wrestling team was recognized for its recent success.

“Covid was a difficult time for wrestling — we stuck through it,” Coach Nate Ybarra said. “This year I told them all year long, ‘you’re going to make this happen. You guys can do it.'”

Some of the Bearcats girls wrestlers also traveled to Lemoore High School to compete in the CIF Masters. Next year they look forward to hopefully making it to State.

“The girls, they did amazing,” Ybarra said. “They also competed at the CIF level.”

The Bearcats have some young athletes just starting their careers. Ybarra is looking forward to making State again next year and even making it into the top 10 teams.

“They showed up. They competed like no other,” he said. “Next year, we are looking to do the same thing. Hopefully, we can be top 10 within the Central Section. I think we can do that next year.”

The 2022 CIF State Wrestling Championships will be held on Feb. 24-26 at Mechanics Bank Arena in Bakersfield.

The boys’ lineup for the first round of State Championship is as follows:

Peyton Kilber vs. Casey Aikman (Ukiah)
Ciccarelli vs. Carlos Garcia (Oakdale)
Lowry vs. Thomas Sandoval (Vacaville)
Davidson vs. Logan Kuehl (Vacaville)
Kemp vs. Caleb Vanbuskirk (Palm Desert)

“The future is looking bright for Paso Robles wrestling,” said Ybarra. “The grit and dedication that this team has, just coming in and working hard, they deserve this, and I’m super proud of them as well.”