It’s been a tough two years for the Truckee Youth Wrestling Club.

The outbreak of COVID-19 sidelined the team in 2020-21, and due to weather in December, the squad came into the season with only a few practices under their belts. The club then had to pause activities again in January — a response to restrictions on extracurricular activities from the Tahoe Truckee School District.

“Regardless of the COVID-related setbacks, we’ve been going strong with a group of 15 wrestlers since early February,” said coach Aaron Svitana in an email. “While that is about half the wrestlers that we typically trained prior to the pandemic, I think that it is an impressive number of kids and families given the uncertainties of operating through COVID.”

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After a stop-and-start season that included only a handful of tournaments, the program will send around 10 of its members to Reno to compete at this weekend’s USA Nevada State Championships.

“I’m sure we’ll have some great efforts by all of them,” said Svitana. “And, if we’re lucky, bring home a few medals.”

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The team most recently competed at the Sierra Wrestling Association Folkstyle Championships at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center on Feb. 27. Sammy Svitana captured first place at the meet. Jacob Svitana took second place, and Evan Mozrok took fourth.

The state championships will be held at Spanish Springs High School on Saturday and Sunday.

Justin Scacco is a staff writer with the Sierra Sun. He can be reached at jscacco@sierrasun.com