Competition Team Results
US Open
US Open was held in Orlando, Florida on February 15-18th. The US Open is an international competition hosted by USAT. This year 41 countries were represented with over 4000 athletes competing in Olympic Style sparring and Forms. VTC sent three competitors this year. Steven Carter kicked things off with an excellent fight against Jaime Toyota on Thursday the 15th. Steven did not win the fight but held his own against the Army team member. Next up was Yuto Ikuma. Yuto fought his way to a bronze medal. This in of itself was a impressive feat, made more so by the fact that this was Yuto’s first competition as a black belt as well as being his first international competition. Finally, Naomi Sevidal received a silver medal on closing day of competition.
AAU GA State Championships
The AAU GA State Championships was held on Saturday, February 28th in Duluth, GA. VTC sent seven competitors to represent our school. In the first fight of the morning, Naomi Sevidal received a gold medal. Soon after, Steven Carter fought his way to a bronze medal. In her first fight since giving birth to a beautiful baby boy only seven months ago, Christiana Saltzman received a bronze medal. Shuto Ikuma drew inspiration from his older brother and earned a bronze medal of his own. Chrisitan Paniccia fought hard for his bronze in his first tournament appearance ever. Yuto Ikuma was eliminated in the first round after a difficult fight with an experienced fighter from FCT. Finally, Eoin Sevidal returned from a self imposed retirement for his first fight in over a year. Eoin did not win this match but will be back in fighting form soon.
USAT Qualifiers
Several members of the VTC competition team have competed in the Dallas and Kansas City qualifiers. The next qualifier that the team members will visit is Fresno, California at the beginning of June with USAT Nationals and Jr. Olympics in July.