It might have been a little cold and rainy outside, but the competition was on fire at the Cuddy Arena on the beautiful campus of Wingate University just outside Monroe, North Carolina. Corey Waiters had over 400 competitors and a large number of spectators from Virginia, Georgia, North and South Carolina to attend his annual Union County Karate Classic. The tournament rated 4A by the MATT (Martial Arts Tournament Tour), SKIL AA, AMAA 4A and DOJO and was an overwhelming success.
Steve Rich impressed spectators and judges alike with full force throws and kicks in the adult self defense division.
Bradley Norris performed a near flawless bo staff forms to win the 11 and under traditional and open weapons divisions, while Kaylee Plunkett held her ground to win the 12-17 open division. In the adult divisions, Lauren Ferguson of Virginia’s Team FX topped Ted Johnson and Ryan Yarborough for the adult division, Rick Zollars also of Team FX edged out Michael Goodwin, and Algae Moody for the senior division while George Epps of Virginia held off Ross Haswell, Joshua Page and Tony Moody for the traditional win.
Adult open form winners included, Lauren Ferguson, Michael Goodwin, Ted Johnson, Bobbi Hilton and Rick Zollars. Meanwhile in the junior departments, Kenneth Arrant, Bradley Norris of Team Academy and Pam Mitchell were the top finishers.
Junior traditional form winners included Bradley Norris, Asante Lee, Casey Finch, Crystal Penny, and Kaylee Plunket. In the adult Japanese/Okinawan division Anthony Higgins took top honors over Joshua Page, William Johnson, Chris Clarida, Tony Moody and Ross Haswell. Ryan Frye took the Korean division. George Epps topped the field for the senior division while Lauren Ferguson had a great day taking the female counterpart.
In point sparring Justin Brown held off Tyrone McKoy 5/3 for the 10-11 boys win, Darryl Norman of Ricky Taylors school squeezed by Christopher Fields 4 to 3 for the 12-14 win while John Norman of Team War Angel slipped by Gary Whelpey 2/1 for the 15-16 win. In the girls divisions Casey Finch held off her nearest opponent Pam Mitchell of Universal Martial Arts 4/1 in 10-11 girls while Ceaira Walker of Kenneth Morrison’s School kept Team War Angel’s Ashanti Odom from taking the prize with a 10/6 score in the 15-17 girls division.
Over in the men’s divisions with some big divisions and hard fought battles Jimmy Sherman aced the super light division, Ryan Frye was top dog for the light weight division and C.J. Corbin of Team SMA won the middle weight division over Ryan Yarborogh. Kenny Green Jr. was tops in heavy, while Ryan Freeman held everyone at bay for the super heavyweight win. In the senior categories Joey Shiflett pulled all the stops to win the light division, Tony White surpassed Ricky Taylor 3/2 for the heavyweight win, Kenny Morrison battled a half dozen players in the 42 and over division while Lauren Ferguson held on to best Shonda Grant for the women’s division.
Now on to the grands. Junior traditional forms went to Bradley Norris, adult traditional went to George Epps, while adult open went to Lauren Ferguson.
In the junior sparring grands Ceaira Walker snagged the win 6/5 from John Norton. Jimmy Sherman won the adult grand, while Kenny Morrison went on to win the senior grand over Joey Shiflett 9 to 8.