The colored belts took over the majority of the mats on Saturday, July 13 as the IBJJF New York Summer Open took place in a moist basement gymnasium at the City College of New York. What felt like another world that captured you for the full day, the schedule was packed with stacked divisions one after the other.

By 10:40, the purple belt males were beginning to infuse the blue belt males on the ten mats and by noon the brown belts had joined in as well. The black belts melded in and before you know it, the divisions were closing up and open weight categories were forming brackets.

Here are the results and standouts that made their way through the hot basement atmosphere, against tough opponents and onto the podium:

Blue belts were mostly dominated by Team Lloyd Irvin members, Malachi Edmond at light-feather, Derrick Holmes at feather and Sodiq Yusuff at light. At rooster, Dean Lewis and all of his 5’2″ self managed to submit his way to his second IBJJF gold ever. He always weighs in below the weight limit and although he just moved from Pennsylvania to Virginia to train at 50/50, he is already reaping reward.

Purple belts showed skill from all teams allowing GFTeam, Alliance Marcelo Garcia, Team Lloyd Irvin and others to take the podium as no one team dominated. Standouts Daniel Goss and Lucas Mattos Moutinho of GFteam took gold in their division and also closed out the open weight division as middleweight and super-heavyweight. The takedowns of Lucas were ferocious and his cardio allowed him to keep up a fast pace throughout all of his matches.

Alliance Marcelo Garcia gained the most points as a team and in turn was granted the first place trophy. For the brown belt males, three divisions from light to medium-heavy were won by members of the Marcelo Garcia crew. Gianni Grippo won the lightweight category moving up from his normal featherweight territory, Dillon Danis who is now making his way into the IBJJF competition podiums won the middleweight division and Matheus Diniz who came from Brazil to train with Marcelo full-time won the medium-heavyweight division.

The brown belt open class was interesting purely because the winner, Maximilian Bohanan, placed second in his weight category, middleweight and the second place Kevin Mahecha placed third in his division, lightweight. Male heavyweight Tim Spriggs placed third after meeting Kevin in the semi-finals but wasn’t able to dominate the match as all of his other matches during the day.

The females brought on high-level competitors from all over: Texas, Atlanta, California, Florida, Boston, Maryland, Puerto Rico, Pennsylvania and more.

Blue belts were dominated by featherweight Annie Xiong and lightweight Anna Burdette from Alliance Marcelo Garcia although more female blue belts placed on the podium also from their team. Heavyweight Michelle Welti of Big Brothers took the top spot of the open weight podium after she defaulted gold in her weight division. Second place went to the middleweight champion Jessica Adams of Nova Uniao with Annie Xiong and fellow featherweight Viviana Eva Velez of Carlson Gracie Team in Puerto Rico taking the third place spots.

Purple belts only had light-feather, light and middle, spreading out the athletes who wanted a fair amount of matches to higher weight categories. Danielle Alvarez of GMA Alvarez BJJ placed second in both weight and absolute proving her comeback to Jiu-Jitsu is getting right back to the top. Double gold went to Katie Merrill of Boston, although a native of New York, who fought her way through five matches. Sera Kim and Jessie Carpenter won their respective division but opted out of the open weight, satisfied with their performances.

For the full results, click here.

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The 2013 IBJJF New York Summer Open brought another group of black belts to the big apple in the second New York tournament by the IBJJF this year. Last April we saw a heavy showing of Gracie Barra black belts with Otavio Sousa earning double gold. This year the mix was rather spread out with only a couple black belts from the same team.

Vitor Henrique Oliveira of GFTeam placed third at the 2013 World Championship in the middleweight division losing to the champion, Otavio Sousa. Traveling to New York, he was able to take the place of Otavio and earn double gold as well, winning the middleweight division along the way. Vitor defeated Brian O’Leary of Gracie Humaita with a choke after scoring 20 points to win the semi-final. In the final he faced Daniel Tavares of SAS Team USA submitting him fairly quickly. Daniel defeated DJ Jackson on his way to the final with a three point lead.

In the open weight division, Vitor had two fights. He defeated Roger Ambrosi of Renzo Gracie with a spinning armbar from side control and defeated DJ Jackson in the final by points, 5-2.

The black belt male light-featherweight division had five competitors. Daniel Beleza of SAS Team, who placed third at the 2013 World Championship won the division. He defeated Mark Ramos with a loop choke then defeated Jose Gonzales Jr. of Nova Uniao by a two point lead. The featherweight division held three competitors so in a round robin situation, Raphael Fernandes of Renzo Gracie Team took the gold. He lost to Isac Chavez of Nova Uniao by points his first match, defeated his next match Ramon Flores-Luna by a two point lead and then was able to defeat Isac Chavez in the final. Lightweight gold went to Osvaldo Augusto Queixinho who flew from California. He defeated Fletcher Linton Jr. of Ribeiro Jiu-Jitsu with a choke from side control and went on to defeat Renan Borges to win the gold. Middleweight was conquered by Vitor Henrique Oliveira and recapped above. Medium-heavy was won by Christopher Moriarty of Alliance Atlanta and super-heavyweight was won by Roger Ambrosi of Renzo Gracie.

The female black belt open weight division had four competitors. Featherweight Jen Petrina of Marcelo Garcia Academy defeated medium-heavyweight Karen Miller of Florian MMA by points 11-2. Featherweight Nyjah Easton of Team Lloyd Irvin defeated lightweight Bibiana Dos Tan Pacini of Brazilian Top Team with a transitioning armbar from triangle. In the final, Nyjah Easton defeated Jen Petrina with a quick mounted triangle-armbar.

For full results please click here.

Vitor Henrique Oliveira passes the guard of DJ Jackson in the black belt open weight division at the 2013 IBJJF New York Summer Open. Photo: Erin Herle

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