Hey gang, We're coming off of a big showing last weekend at Ivan
Mendez's Mercer County Karate/Kung fu championships. We've been
competing here for the last 4 years or so. New this year was the
location at Rider College which was a big improvement in getting
there. But the most noticeable improvement over all was the beautiful
trophys! 1st and 2nd place were gorgeous statuettes of General Kwan
Gung, in different poses, the patron saint of Chinese Martial arts
for which the weapon the Kwan Dao is named for. Very different than
the typical trophies one usually sees which your lucky to be able to
get home in one piece without falling apart on you! Members
representing both the Bristol Pa school and Coach Li's school in
Washington Twnship NJ competed and came home with impressive wins.
Brandon H. from Li's Martial Arts Center competed for the first time
ever and came home with 1st place in Intermediate Boys sparring.
Jeana S. from the Bristol Pa school came home with two 1st places for
weapons (Broadsword) and Handforms (Longfist) and 2nd place for
sparring. Kent R. also from the Bristol branch debuted in
intermediate 12yrolds with impressive performances in both handforms
and sparring but placed outside of the top 3 positions as a finalist.
In the Adult divs. I myself placed 1st in Exec heavyweight sparring,
2nd in Senior weapons (broadsword) and Finalist in Exec Handforms.
Master Saboto Trent coming off a 6 year "Retirement" returned to the
competition floor with an impressive 1st place win in Exec light
weight blackbelt sparring and finaled in Exec handforms. Blackbelts
Ben Outlaw took a hardfought 2nd place in Senior Heavyweights and
Todd Graham fought an impressive match taking 3rd in senior
Middleweights. This was the largest representation for our school at
a competition in recent memory. It was great to see us represented in
impressive numbers.

Cheers!

Mel