The team on the medal podium at the 2013 Pans / Photo via Alvarez BJJ facebook

Team Alvarez BJJ of Mansfield, TX headed out to the five day event called the Pan Ams last week led by head black belt Danny Alvarez. The GMA traveled to Irvine with eleven competitors representing Bruno Bastos and the Nova Uniao banner. By Sunday they had eight medals to take home from their trip as souvenirs.

Five of those medals were the color gold, most of those competitors having at least four matches. Three thousand competitors means most divisions have a lot of hungry athletes hunting for the top spot and Alvarez BJJ was full of starving individuals.

The weekend left one student promoted, others with a brand new accomplishments and for some, a Pan title to fit well with their existing World title.

Congrats to the team at Alvarez BJJ! Check out who won what below and don’t miss the video of one gold medalist, Natalia Shepler in her final match.

Taking home gold were:

Miriam Villar – white belt light feather division

Natalia Shepler – blue belt light feather division

Jordan Shepler (silver in the absolute) – blue belt master middle division

Vin Abadie – blue belt master feather division

Justin Rebolloso – blue belt juvenile 1 feather division

The silver medalists:

Ryne Sandhagen – purple belt super heavy division

Bronze:

Danny Alvarez – black belt senior 1 light feather division

To read more about the GMA academy, you can visit: www.AlvarezBJJ.com