Burlingame's Xavier Bruening a Central Coast Section wrestling title contender

2020 was a banner year for the PAL as wrestlers captured eight medals, but no PAL wrestler has earned a CCS championship since South City’s Luke Cruz captured the 2017 heavyweight title.

Burlingame’s Xavier Bruening is hoping to be the next. The senior goes into the CCS championships, which begin Friday at Watsonville High School, ranked No. 17 at heavyweight in the state and is seeded No. 2 in the bracket at CCS.

No spectators are allowed.

Bruening, who finished third at the PAL championships in 2020 and fifth at CCS, won his first PAL title last week and is looking for his first CCS title, as well.

He has certainly put together an impressive resume this season. Bruening finished second at the Webber Lawson tournament at Fremont-Sunnyvale, won the Overfelt Classic championship and the heavyweight title at the Colt Invitational hosted by El Camino.

And Bruening has no question about where he stands in the heavyweight division. Unlike most weight classes, all the top wrestlers in the section have faced off against each other in tournaments. Bruening has only one loss of the season — and that was to top-seeded TJ Takafua, a senior from Fremont-Sunnyvale ranked No. 3 in the state, who pinned Bruening in the finals of the Webber Lawson tournament.

It is Bruening’s only loss of the season.

But Bruening has also faced off against the section’s third-ranked wrestler, Marco Silva of Alisal, No. 4 Khader Yasin (San Benito), No. 11 Hung Vo of Silver Creek, Julio Nuñez Lopez, an honorable mention selection from Alisal, as well as Sanger’s Tomas Takeda, who is ranked No. 41 in the state.

He is 6-0 against those wrestlers, winning all six by pin, including an 11-second pin of Lopez.

The knowledge gained wrestling against the same guys he will face in the CCS bracket, can’t help but give Bruening confidence.

Here is a look at the other CCS brackets:

108

San Mateo’s Tim Tulloch Jr. in the PAL champ.

Serra sophomore Luciano Cano finished fourth at the WCAL championships.

Gilroy freshman Isaiah Cortez is the top seed at CCS and ranked No. 1 in the state.

115

Capuchino’s Riley Heikel is the PAL champ in this bracket.

Gilroy’s Elijah Cortez, Isaiah’s twin brother, is seeded No. 1 in CCS and No. 2 in the state.

122

PAL champ Aiden Lacap of El Camino and runner-up Christian Navarrete of Half Moon Bay are both ranked in the top-15 of this bracket.

There was a bit of a shakeup in the seedings here as St. Francis sophomore Bryce Luna was ranked No. 1 in the section and No. 6 in the state, but is just the third seed as both Mark Justice Ramirez of Fremont-Sunnyvale and San Benito’s Arthur Parra both leapfrogged Luna as the 1 and 2 seeds, respectively.

128

El Camino’s Brendan Meneses in the PAL champ and was ranked No. 7 in the section.

Aden Valencia, a sophomore from Sobrato, is seeded No. 1 and is ranked No. 2 in the state.

Sobrato’s Aden Valencia is seeded No. 1.

134

Davud Khalilov of Menlo-Atherton is the PAL champ.

Serra freshman Elliot Shnekler finished fourth at the WCAL championships.

Ryan Luna, the WCAL champ, is the No. 1 seed at CCS.

140

PAL champ Carlos Pineda out of Burlingame earned the No. 6 seed for CCS, one of eight seeded wrestlers from the Peninsula. He was ranked No. 13 in the section.

Donte Lopez, a senior from Gilroy, earned the top seed for CCS. He was ranked third in the section at 10th in the state.

147

Josh Aguilar of Capuchino is the PAL champ.

Serra’s Aidann Quinn, a senior, finished second at the WCALs and was ranked No. 8 in CCS.

Anthony Ramirez, a junior from Los Gatos, is seeded No. 1. He is ranked No. 1 in CCS and No. 8 in the state.

154

Carlmont’s Luke Peasley and Half Moon Bay’s Donovan Farnsworth, who went 1-2 at the PAL championships, earned the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds, respectively, for CCS. They were ranked No. 4 and 6 in the section, as well.

Serra’s Audie Lennemann, a junior, was fifth at the WCAL championships.

Zeke Lara, a senior from Sobrato, is seeded No. 1. He is ranked first in CCS and No. 22 in the state.

162

PAL champ Marcos Bautista, is seeded No. 3 and will try to join older brother Emilio Bautista in winning a CCS title. Emilio Bautista captured the 122-pound championship in 2016. Marcos Bautista is ranked No. 3 in CCS and is an honorable mention in the state rankings.

Francois Ricard, a junior from Serra, finished second at the WCAL championships. He was ranked No. 16 in the section rankings.

Quan Nguyen, a senior from Silver Creek who is ranked No. 2 in the section in this bracket, got the No. 1 seed for CCS after division leader Micah Porter decided to compete in the 154-pound bracket.

172

Serra’s Enzo Cappabianca captured the WCAL title and earned the No. 3 seed at CCS. He will try to become the first Serra wrestler to win a CCS title since Dominick Christmas won the 195-pound title in 2017. Pappabianca was ranked No. 5 in the section and No. 38 in the state.

Mateo Sanchez Delope of Menlo-Atherton won the PAL championship and was ranked No. 9 in CCS.

Daniel Gorshkovm a senior from Los Gatos, is the No. 1 seed. He is ranked No. 1 in the section and No. 8 in the state.

184

Menlo-Atherton’s Mathew Philbin is the PAL champ and was ranked No. 15 in CCS.

Serra’s Jace Clayton, a senior, finished runner-up at the WCALs. He was ranked No. 10 in the section.

Palo Alto senior Cade Creighton is ranked No. 1 in CCS and No. 8 in the state. He is the top seed in the CCS tournament.

197

Half Moon Bay’s Nicholas Mandujno is the PAL champ and received the No. 6 seed for the CCS tournament. He was ranked No. 10 in CCS.

Serra’s Dario Salazar, a senior, finished fourth at the WCALs.

Top-seeded Cody Merrill, a sophomore from Gilroy, is ranked No. 1 in the state.

222

Carlmont’s James Brendza is the PAL champ.

Serra senior Isaac Gomez was fourth at the WCALs.

Donn Greer, a senior at Soledad, is seeded No. 1. He is ranked No. 1 in the section and No. 7 in the state.

285

Nico Sanez, a senior at Serra, finished third at the WCAL championships.

Four of the seeded wrestlers in this class are ranked in the top-30 in the state and the fifth is an honorable mention.

Editor's note: This story have been updated to correct the spelling of Enzo Cappabianca.