by Cerwin D Haynes

The Brawl at ELAC made its successful return to campus today after a year off due to COVID-19.

With capacity restrictions in place, the Men's Gym wasn't quite a packed as previous years. But the buzz was still in the air as 11 schools competed across 10 weight classes. Eight Huskies' wrestlers took to the mat, with two winning their respective brackets along with one runner-up and one third-place finisher.

The two ELAC first-place winners are:

Hector Ramirez (141 lb)

Ramirez faced off in a nine-man bracket and came out on top, defeating Zayn Patel of Palomar in the finals with a 9-4 decision.

Jose Aguilar (149 lb)

The sophomore and eighth-place finisher in the 2019 CCCAA State Championships, Aguilar defeated his first two opponents by Tech Fall & Fall. In the finals, he faced a spry and determined Jacob Yamaguchi of Cuesta. Aguilar came out on top via 6-1 decision.

Runner Up: Nathan Ramos (285 lb)

The freshman out of Norwalk scored a pinfall and a 1-0 decision before facing Bakersfield's Corbin Hayes in the final. Hayes lead Ramos 2-1 in the third period, but Ramos had over a minute of riding time and was poised to tie the bout. However, the Renegade heavyweight scored an escape (1pt) in the final minute for ultimately the deciding point and the match.

Third place: Luis Robles (285 lb)

Robles took 3rd by pinning Bakersfield Ivan Posadas in the consolation bracket final.

The Huskies finished third in overall team points (74.5). Palomar took home the Brawl team title with 102 overall points. See full points standings and bracket results.

HUSKY BITS

Retired former Huskies head coach and wrestling Hall of Famer Ralph Valle kicked off the Brawl with opening announcements and by offering color commentary on sportsusa.net, our broadcast streaming partner.

UP NEXT:

Coach Soto's crew has the rest of November to enjoy some turkey and get some practice reps in before heading up the road again to Cuesta; this time for the the South Regionals on December 4 & 5.