Tim Spriggs wins big at the Pan. Photo: Erin Herle
Some of the most exciting matches of the event came from the brown belt adult divisions. On Saturday, the male and female athletes took over the mats from nine in the morning until nine at night.
MALES
Fabio Caloi wins feather. Photo: Erin Herle
The males had many exciting matches. In the roosterweight final two members of Alliance, one from Sao Paulo and one from Los Angeles battled it out with a near even score. At the very end, Francis Tejano of Cobrinha BJJ went for a takedown with mere seconds left and earned the gold over Eduard Lisboa. Light-featherweight brought Andris Brunovski, who moved to Atos in San Diego, back to the top after he won his final against last year’s world champion Michael Woolf Barnato of Kurt Osiander’s. Featherweights brought together members of Alliance a few times. Jon Thomas of Alliance Atlanta faced Isaac Doederlein of Alliance Los Angeles with a sweep battle. Isaac made it through on points and eventually met teammate Jacob Sandoval in the semi-final. Jacob took the pass to fight Fabio Caloi from Alliance Sao Paulo in the final. Fabio earned the submission from the back to get the gold.
Michael Liera Jr. shoots for the triangle. Photo: Erin Herle
Lightweight featured Michael Liera Jr. of Atos who took it home, submitting all five of his fights for the gold. Middleweight was closed out by two Alliance Marcelo Garcia members, Jon Satava and Dillon Danis. Medium-heavy had some of the most exciting matches of the divisions with Inacio Neto of Gracie Barra in wars with various opponents. Matheus Diniz from Alliance Marcelo Garcia had takedown and sweep stand-offs with Inacio but lacked the two points to win the match. Mike Carbullido of Atos had a similar match even passing Inacio’s guard but failed to stabilize and lost on points.
Manny Diaz wins the medium-heavy division. Photo: Erin Herle
In the final, Manuel Diaz of Brasa Caio Terra Association, who had submissions of his own on the way to the end match-up, out scored the Gracie Barra athlete to win the gold.
Heavyweight was dominated by Tim Spriggs of Crazy 88/Team Lloyd Irvin. His aggressive, forward approach to his takedowns, knee slice passes to the back will ensure him of a choke. His final match against Fernando Reis of Alliance ended in this manner. Erberth Santos of Team Lloyd Irvin but a local to Sao Paulo, BR won the ultra-heavyweight division and Pedro Moura of Ribeiro Jiu-Jitsu won the super-heavyweight division, also traveling from Brazil.
Erbert and Tim close out the brown belt adult open weight division. Photo: Erin Herle
The open weight for males was narrowed down to Jon Satava vs. Tim Spriggs and Erberth Santos vs. Igor Schneider. Tim submitted Jon with a bow-and-arrow choke while Erberth submitted his semi-final with a kneebar. A flip of the coin determined Erberth as the gold medal winner.
FEMALES
Karen Antunes wins the featherweight division. Photo: Erin Herle
The brown belt ladies had smaller divisions than the males but did not lack action. The light-featherweights only had two competitors but of high caliber. The margin was small but Kristina Barlaan of Brasa Caio Terra Association was able to repeat her 2013 performance and take the gold by advantage over seasoned competitor Chelsea Bainbridge-Donner of Atos. Featherweight was full of accomplished competitors who compete regularly. Karen Antunes of Checkmat outscored Maxine Thyline of Gracie Humaita to get to the final. Patricia Fontes of Checkmat armbarred Christie Sullivan of Gracie Elite Team then lost to Tess Kovit of Ribeiro Jiu-Jitsu by points. Karen submitted Tess with a choke from the back for the win.
Angelica Galvao wins the lightweight division. Photo: Erin Herle
Lightweight was led by Angelica Galvao of Atos who first had Jane Minondo of North Vancouver BJJ. She won by points. Laurah Hallock of Paragon defeated Jackeline Oliveira of Alliance to face Angelica in the final. The gold went to Angelica to give her a third Pan title.
Monique Elias wins the middleweight division. Photo: Erin Herle
Middleweight began with Rosamond Snow who submitted Nathalia Azoff of BTT with an armbar. Sijara Eubanks of Team Lloyd Irvin defeated Ana Lowry of Cicero Costha to get into the finals. Monique Elias of Alliance defeated Rosamond by armbar in the semi-finals and then submitted Sijara in the final with a choke from the back for the gold. The heavyweight division only held one athlete, Hillary VanOrnum of Impact Jiu-Jitsu.
Medium-heavy had two matches with Brooke Goldsworthy of Crispim BJJ Brothers defeating her first opponent, Angela Hernandez of Gracie Barra. In the final, Dominyka Obelenyte of Alliance Marcelo Garcia defeated Brooke by points to earn the title.
The open weight division for the females consisted of thirteen women:
Karen Antunes defeated Kristina Barlaan by choke from the back.
Sijara Eubanks defeated Jane Minondo by ezekiel.
Laurah Hallock defeated Rosamond Snow by armbar.
Dominyka Obelenyte defeated Maxine Thyline by americana.
Tess Kovit defeated Hillary VanOrnum by referee decision.
Patricia Fontes defeated Angela Hernandez by choke from the back.
Patricia defeated Brooke Goldsworthy by 7-2 in points.
Monique Elias defeated Laurah by choke from the back.
Sijara defeated Karen by 4-2 in points.
Dominyka defeated Tess by americana.
Monique defeated Sijara by 8-0.
Dominyka defeated Patricia by choke from the back.
Monique Elias wins the open weight and double gold. Photo: Erin Herle
The final between two Alliance females was intense the entire match much because of the talent among the two and the action. Both pulled guard and Dominyka came up for the advantage not long after. She pushed into top half earning another advantage before Monique recovered her guard, threatened a sweep and earned an advantage. Dominyka pressured through once more to close in on Monique with shoulder pressure and an underhook and managed to clear her legs to pass. Before stabilizing, Dominyka stepped her foot over for mount but Monique responded with her knee to counter, turned into her and on to her knees which only gave Dominyka another advantage. Monique stood up with her grips on Dominyka’s pants and as Dominyka went to guard, Monique earned two points. Dominyka swept for two points and Monique closed the 50/50 guard. Monique swept to top still in the 50/50 position for two points. Dominyka swept once more for two more points and attempted to keep Monique down but Monique earned two more points at the very end of the match for the win, 6-4.
You can check out a full album with photos from the brown belt divisions here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/graciemag/sets/72157642514279034/
