Daily Journal Boys’ Wrestler of the Year: Burlingame’s Xavier Bruening

“Overall, this season was great,” Bruening said. “Every loss I had was to a state placer.”

Bruening himself ended the season ranked in the top 20 in the state and when he got to the state championship tournament, it was abundantly clear he was facing the best of the best. He won his first two matches to advance to the quarterfinals, where he lost to the eventual state champion, Daniel Herrera of Palm Desert, who was ranked No. 1 in the state and was the preseason favorite to win the heavyweight title.

Bruening’s high school season came to an end in his next match, as he dropped a 3-1 decision to Chase Nutting of El Dorado, who finished the year ranked No. 14 in the state.

Of all his matches, this was the one that stuck with Bruening the most.

“The one takedown, I fell, he covered,” Bruening said.

While satisfied with his performance, Bruening would have liked a little more mat time. He was 14-4 in five tournaments, but managed only one match during the PAL dual-meet season. Compounding matters was the fact he couldn’t wrestle as many tournaments as he would have liked.

“The only bumps in the road were getting into some tournaments,” said Eric Botelho, Burlingame head coach, citing COVID issues as the main sticking point.

“We were just trying to get him some mat time. Most of the time, it takes three or four tournaments to get geared up for the postseason. Xavier was able to overcome some of those obstacles,” Botelho said. “The maximum number (of high school matches) is 40. Some of our better wrestlers had 20 matches or less.”

What Bruening may have lacked in quantity, he made up for with quality. In his first tournament of the season, the Webber Lawson tournament, hosted by Fremont-Sunnyvale, Bruening went 2-1, losing in the championship match to Fremont's TJ Takafua.

It was a sign of things to come.

In his next tournament, he went 4-0 in capturing the Overfelt Classic, hosted by Overfelt High School in San Jose, pinning all four of his opponents in the first round. His first two matches lasted a total of 22 seconds.

While he was dominating, he now believes it wasn’t in his best interest to finish guys so quickly.

“At the beginning of the year, I took it for granted. I think my first four matches were all by first-round pins,” Bruening said. “That came back to haunt me at the end of the year. In my final state match, I was gassed by the third period. That lack of mat time cost me big time.”

Bruening capped the regular-season tournament circuit with the heavyweight title at the Colt Invitational, hosted by El Camino.

After winning his first PAL heavyweight title, Bruening turned his attention to the CCS tournament, where he was the No. 2 seed — behind Fremont’s Takafua.

That’s where Bruening’s mental game came into play.

“At the CCS level, I was solidly the second best,” Bruening said. “I looked at my bracket, pointed out the one or two kids who could beat me and then went out there.”

After a first-round bye, Bruening won his next three matches by first-round pin to advance to the championship match.

When he beat Silver Creek freshman Hugo Vo in the semifinals, Bruening leapt to his feet as if had won the championship. But it was because the win not only sent him into the finals, but punched his ticket to the state tournament.

“I was hyped,” Bruening said. “I immediately jumped up after the pin. I was going to Bakersfield (site of the state championships).”

There would be no Disney ending, however, as Bruening lost in the championship match to the section’s top seed, Takafua, who pinned Bruening in the first round and would go on to finish fourth in the state.

“At one point, I had a hold and thought I had him,” Bruening said. “He’s just strong.”

Now that the high school season is over, it doesn’t mean Bruening’s wrestling season is done. He has already wrestled in a few club tournaments with Peninsula Wrestling Club. He is also playing lacrosse for the first time for Burlingame. Next fall, he is enrolling at Iowa State and while he initially didn’t intend to tryout for the wrestling team, he now thinks he will give it a shot.

“My performance at state really showed me that I hang out with those kind of guys,” Bruening said. “I think I’ll just go challenge their top guy and see what happens.”