Glorious! Rangel Remains Unbeaten at Vanguard

By Brandon Petersen

Swagu.

The kid is dripping in it.

If you've never seen Westcliff grad student Gabriel Rangel wrestle before, gas up the car, pack up the family, feed the dog and find the nearest gym the Warriors are performing in.

This is a can't-miss show.

Saturday at Vanguard, Westcliff's heavyweight, a man his teammates have dubbed, "Glorious," remained unbeaten on the year with two wipeout pins and one tactical marvel to finish off his, ahem, glorious afternoon.  

And oh, by the way, the Warriors made history in the process, claiming their first dual win in program history – and boy did they collect it in style.

Rangel took just 45 seconds to find his leverage, take down the taller opponent and record the pin, finishing off a 42-0 drubbing of Fresno State in which every single Warrior forced a first-round fall.

That's how you do that.

"As an individual (the match) went well, as a team it went well," Rangel said after the Warriors dusted the Bulldogs. "A lot of guys are out to showcase their skills and execute.

"It feels pretty great. I've been a part of different programs, and I've had a lot of wins, but this feels different. To be the first – there's something special about that. And that's going to carry on to when Westcliff is national champions in the future."

Jesus Bracamonte started things off for the Warriors and collected his pin in just 40 seconds. Anthony Tamay then followed it up with a pin of his own at 1-minute, 36-seconds.

From there, Santiago Pacheco needed just 58 seconds to collect his pin, and Thomas Venezia came in just before the first-round whistle with a win at the 2:53 mark.

Before Caiman Garcia chalked up a forfeit for the Dubs and Rangel shut it down, Davin Ito took his turn claiming victory with a fall, this one coming at 1:25.

"The first match was awesome," Westcliff head coach D'Rell Gist said. "We executed our gameplan. We went out there aggressive and looked for turns on top. We weren't just hanging out, so it was great. Got our first dual win in program history for the men – it's just super exciting."

Now, Fresno State may be a big name, but their wrestling program is not quite at the level of Westcliff's last two opponents of the day – Menlo and Vanguard, two schools which, frankly, are great at everything.

Gist knew his team would be in for a challenge, but he put it on them to perform despite the adversity, and the team did just that.

Menlo was a very tough, physical, disciplined squad and was able to pretty much blank the Warriors. They came up with a 51-6 win, but the Dubs didn't fold along the way, they fought hard, oftentimes outmatched by older, wiser opponents.

But Westcliff nonetheless proved to be anything but a pushover, taking a few Menlo wrestlers to the brink before finally succumbing to last second losses.

Then, of course, Rangel stepped onto the mat and absolutely destroyed his opponent with the move of the day, setting him up, grabbing his arm and whipping him over his back and onto the mat, where, a few seconds later, the referee slammed his palm.

Rangel shot up, found the cameraman and started flexing.

That's that swagu we talked about – something the leader will now be tasked with flowing directly into the psyches of his younger teammates, who deserve to walk with the same confidence, but have yet to find it.

"The victory comes from the Lord," Rangel said. "That's what gives me that ease on the mat, knowing that the end result is already in his hands, and all I have to do is go walk it out."

In the third and final match of the day, Westcliff took on the home team, Vanguard, a program that is coming into its own and showed out Saturday.

The Dubs, once again, fought hard, particularly Pacheco and Ito, who both took it the distance before losing decisions. Ito's match was incredibly hard-fought, going all the way into overtime before Ito's opponent collected a takedown and the sudden-death victory.

In Rangel's match to close out the day, it was a hand-fight almost entirely all the way through.

That's when a little coaching on Gist's part made the difference.

After the second round, Rangel had his choice of starting positions, but with the score tied, Gist gave him to signal to defer to the opponent, allowing Rangel to choose starting position in the final round if it got to that point.

It did.

Rangel found himself in a scoreless tie to start the third, so he chose the down position, knowing that all he needed was to escape to gain the lead.

That's exactly what happened, the round started, and Rangel made his escape, claiming a 1-0 lead he would then hand-fight his way to preserve.

After the win, Rangel busted out the swagger one more time and did a dance for the disappointed Vanguard crowd on hand.

Once again – that's how you do that.

"Gabe is handling his business," Gist said. "He's undefeated this season. He's doing exactly what he should, I mean he's going out there not just looking for throws. He's shooting – he looked great out there. We're excited to see what he continues to do – and, you know, get atop that podium at the national tournament."

Gist was then asked about Rangel's confidence, and whether that can rub off on his teammates.

"Absolutely it can," Gist responded. "No matter who he's wrestling, he's going to go out there and he knows he's going to win. We only have two upperclassmen, it's Gabe and Thomas. So, a lot of these freshmen, they just need that confidence out there. They're losing 1-point matches and just not trusting themselves.

"So that's what we need to do – build that confidence, and hopefully Gabe can give them a little bit of his."

In a word, that would be glorious.

The challenge continues for the first-year Warriors next weekend when they travel to Arizona for a tricky trio of duals – Arizona Christian, Grand Canyon and Embry-Riddle.

From there, the Dubs will shut it down for Christmas and return on Jan. 18^th for the Evergreen Open.