(Greely, CO) – Five schools vied for top honors in the Rocky Mountain Collegiate Taekwondo league’s Fall 2013 championships. The tournament was hosted by the UNC Taekwondo club and marked the first time that they had run an event. The event received coverage in the campus newspaper.
League rules designate two forms of competition, forms and sparring. In the forms competition, students perform prearranged patterns in an attempt to attain a certain technical standard. Forms competitors are broken up into two gender divisions and five skill divisions. (White/yellow belts, green belts, blue belts, red belts, and black belts.) Points vary from fifteen points for first place in black belt to one point for third place in yellow belts.
Action in Men’s C Team Sparring
The sparring competition features students who try to kick and punch each other in the body to earn one point and (sometimes) kick in the head to earn three points. Spinning techniques earn an additional bonus point. There are twenty four sparring divisions broken up by weight (4 divisions) gender (2 divisions) and skill (3 divisions). The lowest skill division is the C team or ‘developmental’ division. This division is open only to green belts and below and has matches with no head contact. The next division is the B team or ‘jr varsity.’ This division is open to all students except black belts, and they have light head contact. The final division is A team or ‘varsity.’ This division is open to all levels but has full head contact. This division generally attracts only black belts.
In the men’s A team sparring, Alan Walls (ACT) took the flyweight division. The featherweight division was very competitive, with Iraq National Team member Ahmed Alsubaihawi (ACT) earning top honors. Alsubaihawi continued his RMCTL unbeaten streak and was fresh off representing Colorado at the World Championships. The welterweight division was owned by Cameron Carter (CU Boulder) who looked strong through several matches. The A team heavyweight division belonged to Cameron Weber (CSU). Weber showed tremendous skill and control. He was fresh off representing the USA as a member of the National Collegiate Taekwondo Team on their trip to Korea during the summer.
CU Boulder team celebrates after the tournament
There were no entrants in women’s A team flyweight division, and the featherweight division went to Lydia Langille (ACT). Heather Gibson (ACT) defeated Brittany Hayward (CSU) in the women’s welterweight finals. Freshman Sarah Mast (CSU) took gold in women’s A team heavyweight.
The CSU team stormed to its best ever 2nd place finish behind coach Cameron Weber. He also won first in black belt forms, and put himself in solid contention for league MVP honors. After seeing the results he had this to say about his team’s efforts. “I am extremely proud of the CSU Taekwondo team! This has been a building year and placing second in this tournament is a great accomplishment, especially considering we only had six competitors. Each team member represented CSU well and we are excited to improve the team and further develop our skills.”
The tournament also featured newcomers Community College of Aurora (CCA), who had a very respectable showing despite being a new program and only having C team competitors.
UNC Taekwondo team poses after running a successful event.
UNC student Olivia Johnstone served as tournament coordinator, and did an excellent job keeping everything together.
Auraria Campus Taekwondo (ACT) continued their unbeaten streak in RMCTL competition, cruising to first place despite fielding a smaller team than usual. The league champion will be crowned after the points are added to the points earned in the spring tournament.
All in all the event provided a much-needed break from studding and resulted in many new friendships.
Team Totals:
ACT: 173 points
CSU: 88 points
CU Boulder: 69 points
UNC: 32 points
CCA: 28 points