Carlmont grapplers claim title at PAL boys’ wrestling championships

Carlmont sophomore James Brendza clinched the championship with his victory in the 222-pound finals. Brendza fought through a knee injury — which was cause for an extended injury timeout in the second round — to earn a 6-4 victory in the light-heavyweight division, putting the Scots over the top Saturday at Sequoia.

“As a coach, I don’t get very many heavyweights,” Carlmont coach Ricardo Garcia said. “When you get them, those are real special kids because it changes the whole landscape of your culture, your dual meets. We’re 60-70% we can win our match just because we have a solid heavyweight. They’re like an ace because they’re always at the end of the match and you have a huge advantage there.”

Carlmont junior Luke Peasley also earned an individual title, topping the podium at 154s. Luke Peasley is currently ranked No. 4 in the Central Coast Section at 152s. Also placing for the Scots was Anthony Aveggio, third place, 108s; Christopher Hojo, third, 128s; Ali Lobao, second, 134s; Jack Peasley, fourth, 162s; and Kevin Jimenez, second, 197s.

Brendza was named Outstanding Upper Weight of the tournament. Outstanding Lower Weight honors were shared by El Camino senior Brenden Meneses and Capuchino senior Josh Aguilar.

Half Moon Bay — the PAL Bay Division dual-meet champ — fell to second place after taking a hit at 134s, as the PAL’s top-ranked wrestler in the division, HMB senior Boris Volynsky-Krug, was held out of the tournament due to COVID protocols. Volynsky-Krug took second place at the PAL tournament two years ago as a sophomore.

“Even him taking third (place) would have been a different story,” El Camino head coach Ray Reyes said via text.

HMB claimed two individual championships, with Marcos Bautista winning the 162s title; and Nicolas Mandujano winning 197s. Menlo-Atherton took third place by virtue of its three individual championships, with senior David Khalilov winning the 134s title; Mateo Sanchez-Delope winning 172s; and Matthew Philbin 184s.

Seven different schools earned first-place finishes throughout the 14 brackets. M-A totaled three, Carlmont, Half Moon Bay, Burlingame Capuchino and El Camino totaled two apiece, and San Mateo earned one with Timothy Tulloch topping the podium at 108s.

Heavyweight champion

Burlingame senior Xavier Bruening had an easy path to the championship match. With only three wrestlers participating in the 287s bracket, Bruening earned a bye in the semifinal-round opener. Sequoia’s Lesoni Olive and M-A’s Diego Santos squared off in the semifinal round, with Olive advancing to the title round.

Bruening — ranked No. 2 in CCS at 285s — hardly broke a sweat, dominating the title match with a 25-8 tech fall victory. Several of Olive’s points were gained from 1-point escapes, with Bruening often following combination points by letting his opponent off the mat to get a fresh toe-to-toe start.

“I haven’t had a lot of mat time this year,” Bruening said. “This was my only match of the day, I had to go out there and get as much mat time, get ready for sections. I had to just take advantage of the opportunity out here to wrestle someone my size.”

In the third round, Bruening finally progressed from the cat-and-mouse approach and finished off Olive with a clever misdirection. After taking down his opponent, Bruening pushed up and off him as though he was going to let him stand up again, but quickly nabbed his by the ankle and constricted him with a double-leg lock and arm bar to put his point total over the 15-point threshold for a tech fall.

“He put up a hell of a fight, but I’ve been doing this for so long,” Bruening said.

With Bruening ranked No. 2, the favorites to meet in the title match at the CCS championships this coming Saturday are he and Fremont senior TJ Takafua, ranked No. 1 in the section.

Sudden death at 140s

Burlingame senior Calvin Pineda earned the title at 140s with grueling overtime win over Half Moon Bay’s Jamil Droubi. The two were deadlocked 3-3 at the end of regulation, but Pineda wasted little time in sudden death, charging at Droubi with a veritable running tackle, scoring the winning 2-point takedown with a blast double to the knee.

“I got up after my third round and I thought I had won … because I heard the refs call stalling, but I guess it was just a caution,” Pineda said. “I looked over and I thought: ‘Alright, I know he’s tired. I’ve had him under be this whole time.’ So, I was like: ‘I’ll just take a shot.’ And my shot, I’ll admit, was a little sloppy, but it took him out.”

Elco doubles down

Reyes couldn’t remember the last time El Camino won two boys’ PAL titles in the same year, but it was no coincidence Meneses at 128s and Aiden Lacap at 122s earned championships in back-to-back matches Saturday.

Meneses and Lacap, who have alternated between the same weight classes this season, are perfect sparring partners, and have a habit of beating the heck out of each other in practice.

“If you have a good partner, it kind of translates,” Reyes said. “And luckily, I have two four-year guys that are the same weight. So, when one guy is down, the other picks him up.”

Reyes was also keen to point out the wrestling lineage of both his PAL champs. Meneses — who also captured a PAL title for South City as a freshman in 2019 before transferring to El Camino — has a father, Michael, who himself was a two-time PAL champion out of South City.

“I’m happy for him that he was able to get his second one,” Reyes said. “He got two, (one) for both schools in the district. He’s got two championships, matching his dad’s two championships. So, that’s a great story.”

Lacap is the first member of his family to win a PAL title, but his older brother Aaron came close. In 2019, the elder Lacap took second place at the PAL championships.

“For him to be able to do that, it kind of carries the family, it carries that the program does work if you have buy-in,” Reyes said.

Lacap’s victory was especially impressive as it was one of the shortest championship matches of the day. The senior fell behind on the scoreboard 2-1 early to HMB’s Christian Navarrete, but after Lacap scored on an escape, he scrambled with a leg pass and quickly went for the pin.

“I was able to put him on his back and I just held him there,” Lacap said.

Five Capuchino wrestlers bound for CCS championships

The quickest championship match of the day came from Aguilar at 147s. It marked the second title of the day for Capuchino. Riley Heikel earned the first at 115s.

Aguilar earned his pin 42 seconds into the first round against San Mateo’s Jason Yang. It took a moment for Aguilar to find his footing while he and Yang went chin to chin, but a swift leg shot by Aguilar led to a takedown and quick rap and leaned on his man until he earned the pin.

Also placing for Cap was Rafael Cabitac, fourth place, 108s; Emil Khoury, third, 162s; and Mark Diaz, second, 172.

“All of our varsity guys made CCS and they all placed,” Aguilar said. “We all work hard, so I don’t expect anything less.”