The MIT Sport Taekwondo Club took second place at a tournament held at
New York University on Feb. 24, the largest tournament in the history
of the Ivy Northeast Collegiate Taekwondo League. Of the twenty four
colleges competing, only Cornell University surpassed the impressive
score of MIT's team, coached by Master Daniel Chuang.

The competition began with forms, or poomsae, competition, in which
competitors perform a choreographed sequence of kicks and hand
techniques. Club President Corinna Hui '09 secured the team's first
victory of the day with a gold medal in the women's red belt division.

MIT was dominant in blue belt forms, with Ning Wu G and Wenxian Hong
'10 taking first place and third place respectively in the men's
competition, and Elisabeth M. Markham '09 and Miranda J. Ha G doing
the same on the women's side.

At the green belt level, Michael Schneider G took first place among
the men with his powerful hand techniques. Shammi S. Quddus '10 and
Chensi Ouyang '08 earned first and third place among the women.

Andrew K. Sugaya '11 also earned second place in the very large white
and yellow belt division.

The sparring competitions were highly competitive in the very large
field, beginning with the advanced (A-Team) division. The women's A1
team (co-captain Karolina A. Corin G, Ha, Hui, and Stephanie R. Chiang
'08) had a very impressive showing, fighting through close matches and
sudden death overtimes all the way to the finals against Harvard
University A1. The team took the silver medal.

In the beginner (C-Team) and first-timer (D-Team) competitions, some
of MIT's newest team members had the opportunity to represent MIT in
the ring. MIT's women's C2 team (Jing "Jenny" Cheng '11, ZheChen
"Mary" Hong '10, and Ouyang) took third place after easily winning
three matches, falling only to Cornell University C1. First time
competitors John Sebastian Pineda '10 and JiHye Ham '08 took a gold
and silver medal respectively in the men's and women's D-Team
competitions.

The tournament ended with the intermediate (B-Team) division, which
provided a satisfying conclusion for MIT with the women's B1 (Ha, Hui,
and Chiang), B2 (Ranbel F. Sun '10, Han Zhu '09, and Markham), and B3
(Jaclyn J. Ho '09, Stephanie E. Nix '09, and Christine Chin
'09) sweeping first, second and third place for the second consecutive
tournament.

For the third tournament this year, MIT's men's A1 team (Wu, and
co-captains Christopher J. Han '09 and Jaroslaw Labaziewicz G) also
served as the men's B1 team. Fighting through a long and arduous day
of competition, they took a bronze medal in the B-Team contest.

MIT finished the tournament with 378 points to Cornell's 657,
retaining second place in the league among twenty schools after three
tournaments this season. The club is now preparing for the next INCTL
tournament at the University of Pennsylvania on April 5.