Former Sunnyside High School standout Roman Bravo-Young, entering his junior season at Penn State, defeated Jack Mueller at 137 pounds in a freestyle undercard of the Kyle Dake–Frank Chamizo main event staged by FloWrestling on Saturday night at Austin, Texas.
Bravo-Young, wresting for the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club, topped Mueller 8-1 after scoring six quick points in the first 1:30 of the first period. The match included two 3-minute periods.
COVID-19 pandemic safety precautions were enforced as the event was held without spectators and the media and members of the training staffs of the wrestlers wore facemasks. The referee wore a clear faceguard and gloves.
Bravo-Young attacked immediately getting Mueller on a single leg, taking him down to the mat for two points in the first 30 seconds. He was able to snap a level change by Mueller and took him down from behind for two more points. He built the lead to 6-0 escaping from a gut wrench at about the 1:30 mark of the first period.
Bravo-Young again leveled Mueller to the mat from behind on a reattack after a snap by Mueller to increase the lead to 8-0 one minute into the second period. Mueller avoided the shut out by maneuvering Bravo-Young out of the circle in the waning seconds.
“I knew he had the outside shot, so I just I gotta move my feet,” Bravo-Young told FloWrestling. “If I move my feet, I can hang with anyone. I moved my feet, so I was ready for his reattacks and then I was lucky to catch trap arm.”
RBY comes out and dominates on his way to an 8-1 win. Darrion Caldwell vs. Luke Pletcher coming up next at 9:27 ET. pic.twitter.com/byjPL4mk8b
— FloWrestling (@FloWrestling) July 26, 2020
Bravo-Young flashed a double-hands behind-the-back stance in the match, similar to what Connor McGregor has shown in his UFC matches. It appeared that Bravo-Young injured a finger before doing the maneuver in the first period, but it did not get in the way of his dominance in the match.
“It’s funny, we were just trying that a couple of days ago,” Bravo-Young said of putting both hands behind his back. “Just trying to do things to see if they can work in matches. Other than that, just to see if it worked because I can get low with the guys, but (I was) just trying things out there.”
Bravo-Young, an All-American in each of his first two years at Penn State, qualified for the NCAA tournament at 133 pounds last season and Mueller did the same at 125 as a senior at Virginia.
Both wrestlers have made age-level world teams, with Bravo-Young part of the 2016 Cadet squad and Mueller wrestling for U23 bronze in 2018.
Bravo-Young, who trains in Tucson at JET Multi-Sport Training Facility, made the finals of the Junior Open last year. He also took home a gold from Junior Pan Am competition in June 2019.
He went 182-0 in his four varsity years at Sunnyside, winning four straight state titles in the process. He was part of the Blue Devils’ 31st state championship team his senior season in 2018.
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon.
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