Team Third Law’s traveling competitors got on a plane in Fort Myers this evening, heading to the Lone Star State for their last international tournament before the Worlds: the Dallas International Open.
Four colored belts from the Naples BJJ School will represent Team Lloyd Irvin tomorrow, meeting up with three competitors from Crazy 88 Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Baltimore, Maryland.
First up on Sunday will be the blue belts fighting at 9:30 a.m.: Joey Ruggiero and Joe Formica from Third Law and Tye Murphy from Crazy 88.
Coach Joe fights at Medio, along with fellow Lloyd Irvin competitor Tye Murphy from Crazy 88. There are 17 competitors total in the division, and Joe and Tye are looking to close out the division for Team Lloyd Irvin.
Coach Joey will fight at Leve, and with 17 people in his division, which means he has four fights for gold.
Blue belt Katy Torralbas will step on the mat around 10:40 a.m., representing Third Law’s women’s program. Katy is looking for her second blue belt gold and has two women in her division, including the 2011 Pan-American Silver Medalist.
Next up in the weight-class fights, Master Roberto Torralbas, Third Law’s head instructor, competes at 12 p.m. in the middle-heavy division with two other brown belts. Master Roberto will have likely have a rematch with Nova Uniao brown belt Brandon Quick, who he defeated on his way to gold last weekend in Phoenix.
Two Crazy 88 white belts, Alexandria Welch and Larissa Zwanenburg will be looking for gold in their divisions, pluma and leve, at 4:20 p.m.
Later in the day it’ll be time for the Lloyd Irvin competitors to take on the open weight class fights. Katy will be fighting in the women’s blue belt absolute at 5:10 p.m. and Master Roberto will fight in the men’s brown belt open 6:10 p.m. Joey, Joe and Crazy 88’s Tye have to medal to enter their blue belt open.
In the open, Katy will have 3 fights for gold and faces heavyweight Yasmin Soto from Nova Uniao in her first match.
The men’s brackets for the open won’t be determined until the day of.
Now, it’s time for the Third Law travel squad to focus on getting a good night’s rest and final mental preparation for the fights tomorrow. Thanks to Master Julius from Crazy 88 for picking a great hotel in Dallas!