Weapons

11 & Under Hard & Soft Creative Weapons (N-39)
Gene Middleton didn’t quite have the SG results he’d hoped for, but you’d have never known it with his creative weapons performance. Middleton was alive and well with the long bo preventing Jake Holguin from taking four world titles by defeating him by one one-hundredth in the eliminations and two one-hundredths in the Finale to retain his title in this division. These two will have to get used to each other as they are in the same age group for eternity. Middleton is a mainstay in Team Strike Force while Holguin is a major player from K2 Karate. Nine year old Federico Aguilar of Schumann’s Kenpo took third.

12 to 14 Male Hard & Soft Creative Weapons (N-40)
There was a big turn over in this division as last year’s top three decided to take a vacation this year. Last year’s fourth place champ, Adam Lewis had no problem moving into the lead position using his kama he took a one one-hundredth lead over Jordan Simon who’s been a force to be reckoned with this year with his long bo. A little slip-up by Lewis didn’t help him any in the Grand Finale, as Simon looked picture perfect and won the title handily. Lewis hails from Lynchburg, Virginia and Simon from Malibu, California. Josue Guerrero of El Paso, Texas took third.

15 to 17 Male Hard & Soft Creative Weapons (N-41)
Joshua Durbin broke a tie leaving Texas’ Joseph Pruiett in the dust for third place while he headed to Grand Finale 1 against the eliminations winner Justin Lewis for a second year in the row.
Wielding long bo, both players were at the top of their game, Durbin with the tricks, Lewis with his intensity. The final result left Lewis two steps ahead, adding to his final total of three world titles at the Games. Lewis calls Team EWO home, Durbin represents Team AKA and Pruiett, Team GOP.

11 & Under Hard & Soft Choreo Musical Weapons (N-42)
Cody Hackman and Rommel Gargoles have nothing on little nine year old Michelle Sims of Utah, While the two of them racked-up several second place victories over the years neither of them took a whopping four at one single SG! Sims may have thought at least she had this division in the bag beating Jacob Holguin by three one-hundredths after a tie in the eliminations. But the unrelenting Holguin pushed ahead and came back to top her by a single one one-hundredth in the Grand Finale. But not to worry, this dynamo little girl will probably have more titles than she knows what to do with by the time she’s a teenager. And speaking of runner-ups Jamie Nakamura who took third in this division took a total of five third places along with his one second place this year.

12 to 14 Hard & Soft Choreo Musical Weapons (N-43)
While Adam Lewis only squeaked by Mia Caldwell by a single one one-hundredth digit in the eliminations, side by side in Grand Finale 1 Lewis earned the respect of all seven judges for the first of two feathers in his cap for SG 17. Both kama wielding pair represent Team EWO, Caldwell from El Paso, Texas and Lewis from Lynchburg, Virginia. Jordan Simon of California took third.

15 to 17 Hard & Soft Choreo Musical Weapons (N-44)
Justin Lewis and Kyle Gray crossed paths several times at the Games in 15 to 17 year old divisions. This time Lewis handily topped Gray in the eliminations leaving Josh Bailey of South Carolina only one one-hundredth behind Gray for third place. Gray closed in on the gap in the Finale as he sliced his kama against Lewis’ long bo, but he fell short leaving Lewis a two time weapons winner for the evening.

Junior Hard & Soft Open Musical Weapons (N-45)
Josh Durbin watched from the sidelines with a whopping ten one-hundredths of a point ahead of a three way tie to see who would be his prey going into the Grand Finale for the title in this division. Tied were David Armstrong of Syracuse, New York; Jamie Nakamura of Oxnard, California and Brittan Kabela of Houston, Texas. A very unhappy Nakamura and Kabela managed to bungle their weapons maneuvers dashing any hope to win the coveted second place qualifying spot. On stage Durbin again showed himself as king defeating Armstrong decisively and leaving the top five winners as completely different players from last year. Durbin trains under Steve Amaro of the Unison Schools.

12 to 14 Female Hard & Soft Creative Weapons (N-46)
In her relatively new NBL endeavor, Melissa Steckham didn’t figure her five one-hundredths deficit in scores between her and Mia Cadwell would allow her anything more than a display on the Finale stage. But in one of those surprise reversals, Steckham topped Caldwell with her long bo versus kama routine to win her first world title. Steckham hails from Nash’s United Family Karate in Canada and Caldwell from Jacob Tapia’s Top Team in Texas. Florida’s Madison Santos of Chuck Norris’ Team CKD took third.

15 to 17 Female Hard & Soft Creative Weapons (N-47)
Lauren Ferguson of Ronnie Ferguson’s Team FX and Tanya Hunt of Team CKD advanced to Finale 1 to decided the elder girls’ weapons champion. Ferguson took the nod from all seven referees for her second year win in this division.
Ferguson is from Virginia and Hunt from Florida. Second runner-up was last year’s 12 to 14 year old champion, Gabby Turner from Darren Cox’s Allstar Karate in Utah.

Men’s Hard Creative Weapons (N-48)
Corky Sikes got a break as his Finale competition had a medical bow out leaving Sikes this year’s champion. The opponent to be, Chad Cannon, got a break as well but it was in his ankle, not exactly the break he wanted. After topping Sikes 28.73 to 28.68 on Wednesday he entered men’s light middleweight point sparring on Thursday and went for broke against Jason Holmes executing a fanatical front flip and hitting his target squarely on the head for a crowd cheering response. Only problem is, he then landed on his foot breaking his ankle. Third place was won by Darrell Lewis of Team Alchemy who had lost a run-off against Sikes for the second place eliminations spot.

Adult Hard Choreographed Musical Weapons (N-49)
For the last three years Corky Sikes and Edgar Cordova have gone head to head in this division, but this year Jerico Catura tied Cordova leaving the reigning champ Corky Sikes one one-hundredth behind and in third place. Cordova entered the stage with his patented kama on a rope routine handily topping Catura’s kama routine with a 6 to 1 judges favor. He thus won back the title he lost to Sikes last year. Cordova is the longevity king of Guatemalan forms competition representing Team GOP, while Catura is a member of DDX.

Adult Soft Contemporary Weapons (N-50)
Mike Pustyak of Darren Cox’s Allstar Team in Utah came out whipping a whip chain like few have seen before. Under, over and around, Pustyak made the difficult seem easy and graceful as he topped friend and nearby Utah resident. Roark Hodson. Hodson utilized a broad sword in this routine. Rommel Gargoles of Blackwood, New Jersey took third place.

Women’s Hard Creative Weapons (N-51)
Carrie Goldbeck of Team MVKC won the eliminations with room to spare 28.05 to a tie of 27.85 between Sara Escriba and Dawn Kabela. Escriba, who hails from Karate Action in Guatemala trounced Kabela in the run-off and came back in Grand Finale 2 to do the same to Goldbeck winning six of the seven judges highest scores. Goldbeck trains at Shaws Karate in North Carolina and Escriba with Luis Morales in Guatemala City.

Senior Hard Contemporary Weapons (N-52)
While David Johnson topped Ronnie Ferguson by one one-hundredth in senior contemporary forms, Ferguson did it back in weapons. And not unlike the eliminations, both went on to win the division in the Grand Finale against each other. Johnson is from Houston, Texas and Ferguson from Martinsville, Virginia. Johnnie Murphy, also of Houston, took third.

11 & Under Hard Traditional Weapons (N-53)
Both Sage Northcutt and Michelle Sims tried their hand at traditional weapons for the first time this year. Northcutt won the eliminations. His continued winning way on the Finale stage left Sims with one of her infamous second places. Sage lives in Katy, Texas, Sims in Washington Terrace, Utah. Gene Middleton of Ludawechioly, Georgia took third.

12 to 14 Hard Traditional Weapons (N-54)
Nearly all of the 12 to 14 year old division moved up or took the year off (Matt Vasser must be resting on his laurels) so it was practically a shoe-in for Jordan Simon, the reigning younger champion. He found Colbey Northcutt a formidable contestant however. In her first year in the traditional category she only missed tying Simon both in the eliminations and the Finale by one one-hundredth. Simon is taught by champion Butch Togisala in California and Northcutt by champion Johnnie Murphy in Texas. Zachary Blundell of the Victoria Karate Academy took third.

15 to 17 Hard Traditional Weapons (N-55)
Not unlike SG 16 in the 12 to 14 year old division, Sergio Calva of Mexico City, Torren Davis of North Carolina and Allan Bedruz of Texas were the establishment to beat. Little separated these fine traditionalists in the eliminations, but one had to go and that was Bedruz as he was narrowly left in third place. Calva took his lead to the stage where again he topped Davis in the showdown with his form Shemi Geta Bo.

Adult Hard Traditional Weapons (N-56)
Three number one national seeds collided in this division. In another of those strange upsets, WestPac seeded Brandon Bertsch tied PanAm/Latin seeded Johnnie Murphy, scoring well below the reigning champion Cody Hackman who had the Can Am number one spot. With Bertsch winning the run-off against Murphy he persevered to narrowly top the eliminations champion to win the title that he last held as 15 o 17 year old junior in 2003. Bertsch lives in Albany, Oregon and Hackman in London, Ontario. Murphy lives in Houston, Texas.