The Bullard High School Wrestling Team attended the CIF California State Wrestling Championships, on February 24-26, at Mechanics Bank Arena in Bakersfield. High schools all over California compete in hopes of winning a state medal or a CIF championship medal.

Wrestling is unique, because it doesn’t have divisions but goes by weight class; California is also one of the most competitive states in the country when it comes to wrestling. The Bullard Wrestling Team was ranked 28th in the tournament.

Hayden Zinkin, who went to the tournament ranked 9th in the state, placed 4th this past weekend. “I was excited, knowing it was my last high school tournament, which gave me some motivation to ball out,” Hayden stated. Hayden went 3-0 on Thursday, the 24th of February, making it to the quarter finals on Friday the 25th. Unfortunately, Hayden fell short of the victory to the #1 ranked wrestler in his weight class losing 8-6.

Senior, Roman Torres was a state qualifier HWT, “I knew it was one of the hardest tournaments in the country because California wrestling is tough, so the week before I really locked in and focused to push myself throughout the tournament,” Torres stated. Roman lost his match at state on Thursday February the 24th. Torres came back the following day on Friday the 25th going 4-0, winning one in overtime. He had a tough match in the blood round where he fell short of the win 1-0, ending his run for a state medal. 

Freshman, Devin Silva was also a state qualifier at the 123lbs weight class, Silva won her first match but lost her second match on Thursday. Friday morning, she wrestled to come back and win that morning. The same day her 2nd match Silva wrestled against her opponent from Gilroy. She fell short of a victory and was eliminated in the blood rounds. Silva was selected by the officials, for ‘’Pursuing victory with honor’’, as she demonstrated the Six Pillars of Character.