Story by Johnnie Murphy
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Nestled deep in the Wasatch mountains of Utah is Salt Lake City. One of the prime destinations for winter sports enthusiasts that hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics. Darren and Rebeka Cox held this February 24t-25 national karate tournament.
Due to an abundance of black belt judges, Saturday’s competition concluded early(...)
Western Pacific National Conference
photos by Johnnie Murphy

Nestled deep in the Wasatch mountains of Utah is Salt Lake City. One of the prime destinations for winter sports enthusiasts that hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics. Darren and Rebeka Cox held this February 24t-25 national karate tournament.

Due to an abundance of black belt judges, Saturday’s competition concluded early despite such a large crowd of participants. After everyone came back from dinner the finals were started. First up were Junior Contemporary Forms with Sage Northcutt winning. Next up Jerico Catura topped Ashley Davies and Rodney Carreion for the cash and the Adult Contemporary Forms grand championship. Several junior continuous sparring divisions were next with Keven Torres, Max Ferguson, Rene Beltran, Andrie Parrott, Matthew Okada, Colbey Northcutt and Krista Punyes the winners. Team sparring was won by Tim Gustavson, Troy Whaley and Marty Maye of DDX. The junior musical weapons grand championship was a contest between Gene Middleton, Mia Caldwell and Chris Martin who won the championship. Jerico Catura won the adult counterpart. Michelle Simms ended up winning a tough competition for the junior Japanese forms grand while Scott Wu with his powerful version of Gojushiho won the adult grand. Jonathan Rios of Texas was the judges pick for the top spot for the junior Korean grand. The last fight for the men’s grand was between Tim Gustavson and Troy Whaley and was a contest between the light weight, and the super heavy weight. The points went back and forth until time ran out on leaving Gustavson with the $700 prize.