Eagle Claw Wins Again at North American Open Tae Kwon Do Championships '98 in Beloit
For the second time in as many weeks, hot off a thirteen-medal victory at the Diamond Nationals in Minneapolis, the UW-Madison Bak Shaolin Eagle Claw Team once again has struck gold, silver and bronze. This time at the '98 North American Open Tae Kwon Do Championships held in Beloit on October 17th.
Again, our team can claim the distinction of being the only full team of traditional kung fu stylists at a tournament dominated by tae kwon do and karate people of both the modern and traditional modes. Once again, in the Chinese black belt forms division, Noam Reininger, team captain UW-Madison won the gold, and Nate Sonnenberg, UW-Oshkosh team captain took silver. This is a duplicate at their performance at the "Diamonds" one week earlier.
In the Open black belt division, where the competition was more modern tae kwon do influenced i.e.: showy 360 and 720 kicks, Nate took silver after tying for first with a local favorite who was the top student of the tournament promoter. The final result was not due to a run-off, but decided by judges hand gestures pointing to their favorite choice. Many in the audience voiced displeasure at what appeared to be the obvious political choice. In the same division, which was divided by height, Noam also took silver, a mere half point behind the leader.
In the white/gold/orange forms division (men's) all of the new team members, many, incoming freshmen, did very well. Curtis Jacobs took second, again by tie-breaker by wave of hand, and Matt Morin took fourth in a tie-breaker run-off. Among the other new comers, Jericho Jansen and Kyle Tromblee placed in the top five.
Ron Burrian, oldest member of the team, a Vietnam veteran, currently a MSW social worker working for North Western medical school, took second in the 35 and over senior forms division and fourth in fighting. This was his first tournament.
In fighting, our team's aggressive, pressing, dominant style became apparent early on. In white/orange/yellow division middleweight, Matt "wrestler" Morin took the bronze after leading 7-4 and loosing three points to head hitting penalties and giving up a point in the last second of the match. Kyle "trouble" Tromblee fought his usual "rough and tumble" style fight and took second after three tiring matches. Curtis Jackson-Jacobs fought a vigorous and nimble match but lost to a spin head kick that scored three points. Jericho Jansen, heavyweight, after two difficult matches with a lot of body punching fought in the first/second match up and ended up with silver. Many of the young opposing fighters congratulated our team on a job well done.
In black belt fighting, the grand finale show of the day, Noam Reininger, Lightweight, while leading 4-0 was penalized on three consecutive clashes for excessive head contact and received a disqualification in that round which nevertheless earned him a bronze in the division. And finally, Nate Sonnenberg, fighting solidly, and after being warned and penalized, ended up with the silver medal in middleweight.
In all, an excellent showing for a new team to start off the '98 season. The Bak Shaolin Eagle Claw teams have always enjoyed entering open, TKD, and karate competitions to match skills against other members of the worldwide brotherhood of martial artists regardless of style. The team would like to thank Grandmaster Fu Leung and Sifu Dana G. Daniels. And one final note.. Happy Birthday Master Fu.