The second day of the 10th annual US Open of JiuJitsu began with the blue belts and was crowned with the first brown/black team competition on American soil. The whole day was packed with action and tremendous displays of skill.
Plenty of black belts put it on the line once again in Santa Cruz Megaton Dias defeated Eduardo Leitao in a fetherweight masters match. In a very tough match Walter Vitale defeated Paulo “JR” Gazze.
The Masters Light Heavyweight division had four competitors. Milton Regis defeated Mica Cipili and then Eduardo Rocha defeated Kelly English. Then Eduardo came back to defeat Milton Regis to take first place.
Local standout Daniel Thomas defeated Pedro Schmall via points. Mariana Azevedo won her respective matches against a very tough Sarah Fairbanks and the always game Luka Tavares.
In the Team Competition two teams were slated to compete with Team Saulo Riberio, with Saulo Riberio, Vincius Magalhaes and Rafael Lovato Jr., and Team BJJ Boulder with Amal Easton, Nick Kline, Eliot Marshall. Lightweight brownbelt Marcos Torregrosa was eager to test his skills as well and formed a team with instructor Cassio Werneck and John Carlquist. So the Teams competition became a round robin affair.
The first match up saw BJJ Boulder vs Team Werneck. Cassio Werneck defeated Amal Easton by points to score first for his team. Eliot Marshall responded by submitting John Carlquist to even the score, then Nick Kline used a nasty banana split type hold on Marcos Torregrosa to win the meet for BJJ Boulder.
In the second match up, Team Riberio faced Team Werneck, however Walter Vital stepped up for the injured Marcos Torregrosa. Cassio again score first for his team by defeating Rafael Lovato Jr by an advantage. Saulo then scored a submission victory over Carlquist. Finally Vincius Magalhaes applied a lightening quick armlock on Walter Vitale to give Team Riberio the win.
This set up the championship match for the title and the prize money between Team Riberio and Team BJJ Boulder. In the first match, team captains Saulo Riberio and Amal Easton battled with Saulo securing the choke for the victory. Then Vincius Magalhaes and Eliot Marshall had perhaps the most entertaining fight of the entire weekend in which they exchanged positions, submission attempts and generally brawled for the duration of their match, however Vincious proved the more effective fighter and prevailed on points. Although Team Riberio had locked up the victory, Rafael Lovato Jr and Nick Kline stepped on the mat anyway and with nothing to lost Kline really sought to take it to his opponent, however with a guard pass towards the end of regulation Lovato scores the victory.
With this 10th US Open Claudio Franca and friends have had one of the longest running and most respected tournaments not only in the United States, but in the world. Here’s looking forward to 10 more years of the US Open!
1st–SAULO RIBEIRO: Saulo Ribeiro, Vinicius Magalhaes, Rafael Lovato Jr., Alexandre Ribeiro2nd–BJJ BOULDER: Amal Easton, Nick Kline, Eliot Marshall3rd–WERNECK/SAUER/MACHADO: Cassio Werneck, Marcos Torregrosa, Walter Vital, John Carlquist