Wrestling optimistic for CCS

Daniel Li, Author
February 18, 2016

Members of the Palo Alto [[
Members of the Palo Alto wrestling team pose after competing at the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League Championships last weekend. The team placed sixth at the SCVAL tournament and will be dropping to the El Camino division next season. Five varsity wrestlers will continue their seasons and attend the Central Coast Section finals on Friday. Photo: Jonathan Kessler.
The Palo Alto High School wrestling team (0-6) will send five members to the Central Coast Section finals this weekend at Independence High School.

The five wrestlers going to CCS are freshmen Andrew Wang, Kevin Giffen and Masako Perez, sophomore Aishah Maas and junior Sara Aguilar, according to head coach Jonathan Kessler.

“[Sophomore] Calvin Grewel is the first alternate at 120 pounds,” Kessler said. “If [junior] Seth Goyal is healthy enough to wrestle, he will represent Paly at CCS and be a top seed.”

Despite having a young varsity team and season-ending injuries, Kessler said that the team expects one wrestler to qualify to the California Interscholastic Federation State Championships. To qualify for states, wrestlers need to place in the top three.

“Returning CCS champion [junior] Sara Aguilar is excited to have the chance to get back on the top of the podium and return to the CIF state tournament,” Kessler said.

According to Aguilar, the team is training hard to prepare for CCS.

“This season the team and I really focused on strength training and technique,” Aguilar said. “The intensity in the room is much greater than before, with more live sparring and intensive drilling.”

The team will participate in the first day of CCS finals on Friday at Independence High School.