Brenden Meneses leads El Camino wrestling to rare win over Terra Nova

EC head coach Ray Reyes said his team was a bit fortunate in that Terra Nova traveled with an abbreviated roster and didn’t have a heavyweight to go in the finale. Neither did El Camino, so the bout was declared a no contest.

“Had [they] brought the heavyweight … they would have won,” Reyes said. “I was already counting the loss.”

That’s where Meneses’s victory in the 132-pound match came into play. Weighing in at 126.6 pounds, the senior had planned to wrestle at 128s. But when his opponent, weighing three pounds heavier, didn’t make weight, Meneses moved up a division to fortify El Camino’s lineup.

It was as much a spirited decision as a competitive one for Meneses. He could have taken the victory via forfeit at 128s, but El Camino was celebrating its Senior Night. So, Meneses was determined to get on the mat.

“Originally their guy was supposed to come down to 128 and then he didn’t make weight,” Meneses said. “And I was like: ‘You know what? It’s senior night. I should just go out there and wrestle.’ So, that’s what I did.”

It wasn’t an easy decision. Meneses was dealing with an injury after bruising a rib at the MidCals tournament in Gilroy, Saturday, Jan. 22. He took eighth-place at the prestigious tourney — a podium finish — after battling through the injury sustained his first match that weekend. He ultimately went on to post a 7-3 record.

For Meneses, himself, the decision to wrestle a heavier Terra Nova opponent was an easy one. The problem was his parents — father Michael and mother Sandra — had forbidden him from wrestling up a division because he might be vulnerable due to injury.

“They weren’t sure about my wresting because of my rib, and I was in a lot of pain,” Meneses said.

The change of heart for Meneses’s parents was due to the semantics of it all. His opponent was only one pound heavier that the requisite weight for 128s, and just three pounds more than Meneses. He ultimately wrestled twice — a loophole in high school wrestling since returning from COVID, allowing for multiple matches with like wrestlers in order to get them reps — and he won both, each by second-round pins.

“It was a pretty easy decision for me,” Meneses said. “I was in pain because of my rib, but then I wanted to wrestle anyways, even if it did hurt.”

Meneses’s parents know wrestling. His father was an NPL champion at South City in the 1990s, and even reached the podium at the Central Coast Section championships with a fourth-place finish.

Meneses initially followed in his father’s footsteps by attending South City, and wrestled there as a freshman. During his sophomore year, however, he transferred to El Camino, where he had to sit out the first six weeks of the 2019-20 season. Since there was only a ultra-abbreviated, unofficial wrestling season last year, this year marks his first full campaign with the Colts.

“He’s just out there having fun,” Reyes said. “It’s a very weird thing. He is an ADHD kid, so there’s a disconnect there sometimes. He’s not the kid, when he’s getting ready for his match, he needs the pep talk … but he wants to know you’re there to support him. He’s not the kind of kid you need to slap in the headgear.”

Meneses is also getting back on his feet after testing positive for COVID over winter break. When school resumed, he missed 14 days of school until being cleared to return. This caused him to miss 10 wrestling practices, one dual meet and one tournament.

Getting back up to full strength has been a work in progress.

“A couple hiccups here and there, but I’m having fun,” Meneses said. “As long as I’m having fun out there, that’s all that really matters to me.”

But Meneses is one of El Camino’s top wrestlers this season, and figures to contend at the PAL and CCS championships if he maintains a healthy trajectory. Not that he’s going to cop to being one of the headliners in the Colts’ lineup.

“If you want to call him a leader, he’s a quiet leader,” Reyes said. “But I don’t think he thinks he’s leading it all. I think he’s kind of beating his own drum.”