Kids
On Sunday January 19th, we had 3 kids compete. Including Lincoln Casas, who participated in his first ever bjj tournament. He fought super strong, and gained some great experience by getting out there. Jake Allan went 2-2, and finished with a super cool choke from the back. Joseph Ramirez also competed, and absolutely gave it his all on the mats (as usual). His great performance earned himself a silver medal. It takes a lot of courage to step on those mats at such a young age, but the coaches couldn’t have been more proud of the little bulldogs and how they conducted themselves.
Adults
In his first ever bjj tournament, Josh Tan Torres put on a takedown clinic en route to a silver medal. He won 2 matches, and lost a nail biter in the finals. Kabir Kamboj also had 2 scraps, coming up just short. Adrian Castanon went 1-2. He won his first match with a beautiful choke from the back. All week leading up to the tournament, Coach Troy was showing a cross choke utilizing the lapel. Jason Rittgers executed the choke beautifully, not once but twice! Adding another gold medal to his resume. Elijah Martinez won his first match via points, including some cool takedowns. He fell short his next matches to some experienced competitors, but showed tremendous heart as he continued to fight out of multiple submission attempts. Our very own experienced competitor, Jose Ramirez, went out and won first place. Showing off some cool techniques such as knee slices and berimbolos. Submission of the day goes to Evan Acker for his unique arm bar, which helped him earn a silver medal. And then the Blackwell brothers ended the day with an impressive performance. Both winning gold medals in gi and no-gi. Jacob had 2 matches in the gi, outscoring both opponents by a score of 38-0. He also outscored his no-gi opponents 25-2 in 3 matches. His brother Adam had 2 matches in the gi winning via points. There was only one other guy in his no-gi division which means they fight best of 3 matches. He lost the first match by over 10 points, but learned from his mistakes. He came back to submit him via kimura, and dominated the final match to win by points. As an organization, Carlson Gracie Team won first place for Adults & Masters! Our team in particular took 6th place in gi, and 3rd place in no-gi. And a special thanks to Professor Troy Acker for spending his day running from mat to mat to make sure our competitors had him in the corner.
