Marlborough, MASS —
the Colorado collegiate taekwondo teams wrapped up fighting and poomsae at the NCTA Championships in MA on Sunday.
the University of Colorado Boulder teams competed in 3v3 sparring and 3v3 poomsae.
The 3v3 poomsae event was held first. It works like this, there are three competitors per team. Each competitor performs one at a time and is followed by another from the opposing team. Each round has a winner and whoever wins the most rounds wins the match. If there’s a tie, the judges consider the competitors score.
Anjail Misra, Sean Shi and Maclane Bany performed Taegeuk 3 against a team from Liberty University and won.
Another CU team of two blue belts and one red belt went up against a duo from Tufts University.
Jasper Shen, pictured performing Taegeuk 6, Abigail Bishop, and Summer Levin advanced as another team to the finals but came up short to the MIT team, clinching silver.
the 3V3 sparring is also a first for the NCTA championships, dividing teams into three with each athlete being from a different weight category. Fighters get a one on one match with their respective weight class and win the team’s match based on best two out of three.
among color belt 3v3 sparring, the first group of woman who took to the mats on Sunday- Ca’maree Dickerson, and Reagan King threw down in the women’s green belt division for, fighting in Heavyweight and Middleweight, respectively against a team from UVM.
Ca’maree Dickerson went up first, winning her first round with a headshot. She stole round two with a final score of 1-0, handing CU their first win of the day.
Reagan King threw down next. She won the first round in her match, after a 2-2 draw. King took an early lead in the second round with a headshot that would carry her to a 5-3 win, advancing CU to the next round.
In men’s sparring, blue belt Brendan Connors and red belt Jeremy Dreher, fighting in middleweight and lightweight categories, had their first match against a team from MIT. A team of black belts, no less
Dreher took the first matchup of the fight and went up against a black belt. In the first round, Dreher managed to get in two good punches and while the round was 2-2 at the end, the judge awarded the round to Dreher.
In the second round, he took a wicked kick to the head and lost the round 0-7.
Dreher came back in round three were evenly matched in a furious display of kicking, exchanging headshots and cut kick tussles, but a one point deficit was all that was needed to lose the final round, and his match, 3-4.
Connors took the spotlight in the second fight, in the first round he took on a speedy little guy who gave him a run for his money, but within the last ten seconds, Connors scored a headshot to win the round 5-3
The second round was more of the same, a lot of legs slapping against bodies but not the Daedo. And Connor’s just couldn’t get on the board, for a final score of 0-7.
It was all or nothing for the final round, when Connors came out the gate swinging with a flying double front kick. But the MIT opponent stood strong and steady, and even with a fiery clash towards the end, Connor’s would lose 7-4, ending the match.
a gallant exhibition nonetheless.
green belts Grayson Richard, Gavin Hermann, and Danny Alemayehu fought against three red belts from NorthEastern Taekwondo in men’s lightweight, middleweight, and heavyweight, respectively.
The boys put up a good fight, but they couldn’t cash in and lost in the first matchup.
The three black belts, Alyson Ayers, Kaliyah Saunders, and India Rockey, made up the sole black belt sparring team for CU, competing in Middleweight, and Heavyweight categories. Rockey was an alternate.
Rockey fought her first fight and sadly lost, but since the opposing team was only one athlete. The girls moved on.
They went up against another Northeastern Taekwondo team.
Saunders went first. She landed a stellar headshot with 30 seconds left on the clock and won the first round 5-0.
In the second round, She went on defense deflecting a series of high kicks but lost the lead with 15 seconds left on the clock. She lost that round 21.
By the final round, Saunders managed to sneak in a crescent kick to take the lead. And after a tense final few seconds, managed to stave off the Northeastern athlete to win the round and thus the match.
Aly Ayers went up next. She established dominance in the first round with a barrage of lighting-fast cut and ace kicks. She got one point for pushing her opponent out of the ring and exchanged a tit for tat head shot with the other opponent and would hold onto to win 4-3.
In the second round, Ayers took a quick lead with a shot to the body, and snuck in a clean crescent kick before overwhelming her with attacks that would ultimately knock her down. Aly won the second round 11-1, Allowing the team to advance to finals.
CU went head to head with Texas A&M for the final matchup, which started with Kaliyah.
The first round of the first match started with a lot of front leg fencing that Kaliyah used to push her opponent out of bounds. But she took a hit to the head. With mere seconds left on the clock, she punched her opponent, who also fell down. Despite a 7-7 score at the end, the judges gave the win to Texas.
In the second round, she got a punch halfway through followed quickly by another. She continued to score points through punches to get a 4-0 lead with less than 10 seconds left on the clock, and despite an unnerving few exchanges at the end, she managed to take the round to thunderous applause.
So it all came down to the third round. She took a couple of heavy hits to give the other girl a five nothing lead. But sadly, couldn’t pull through and the round ended 7-1. A loss for the heavyweight fighter.
despite the loss, the girls went on to win silver, the first CU team to medal in the 3v3 sparring event at the NCTA Cup.
Jesse Hughes is the editor-in-Chief at ColoradoMAnews.com. He can be reached at his email: jchughes93@gmail.com