| Submitted by: Emily Cooper and Mike "the intern" Spizzuco |
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| Team Next Level took home the World Team Sparring championship. |
It was a little chillier than expected in Philadelphia as we arrived for the 2010 Amerikick Internationals but that did not stop the tournament from running like a wildfire! Held March 26-27, 2010 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Amerikick Internationals started right on time Friday evening with continuous sparring divisions and the extreme, creative and musical weapons divisions for adult and kid black belts.
Women's weapons was one of the first divisions to begin and it was interesting to see some of the improvements in the competitors. Last year at Amerikick, Erika Dertzinger was on stage in the finals with a good nunchaku performance. This year she was stronger with far more difficult maneuvers that resulted in a great overall performance. But the woman of the hour this year was Becca Ross, in her first year as an adult, she cleaned up by winning pretty much every form and weapons division she entered.
One of the highlights of the event was some of the junior competitors who are finally getting some well-deserved recognition. Carson Donihoo has been a quiet presence on the NASKA circuit since he was barely old enough to spin a kama. At Amerikick Internationals, he won his 14-15 extreme division and went to the 14-17 boys grand championship run offs. He decided to be unique and performed in the run offs without music and made it through defeating Micah Karns, Tyler Weaver and Vincent Scarduzio. This was quite an accomplishment as Karns was the Compete Nationals winner and looked even better at Amerikick that he had just a month before.
In the 13 and under boys creative/extreme/musical forms grand championship run offs, Danny Etkin was ferocious and Andrew Franklin followed Donihoo's lead and performed without music. It was the drama of 13-year-old Jacob Pinto that put Pinto into the finals.
Pinto actually got on stage twice - once for his form and also to compete in the IllReality Tricks Competition for the junior boys title. The tricks battle saw a large number of participants and some amazing performances and upsets especially in the junior divisions. Little Cody Saunders defeated powerhouse Tyler Weaver in an early round for the junior boys. And Micah Karns was eliminated from competition by local competitor Nelson Zuniga who amazed the crowd with his arsenal. In the end, Pinto was joined by Austin Crain and Zuniga for the boys' trick battle on stage.
Also in his first year as an adult, Cory Lutkus was in attendance. He had a hard time getting anything started in his weapons competition with two drops and a bobble in his three performances. However, from what we were able to observe, when he gets his performance down and gets the adult jitters out, he will be a force to be reckoned with. The Cinderella story of the event was Jarrett Leiker who defeated powerhouses Kalman Coska and Rudy Reynon in men's musical weapons and also defeated Csoka in men's traditional weapons. Leiker also won the men's Korean forms competition and the adult traditional forms grands to get on the stage twice for the adult grands.
Six teams entered the men's team sparring competition, including a revived Team Victory. Victory's El Java Abdul Qadir, Troy Binns and Sam Simeon were taken out by Full Circle's Niko Negron, Ross Levine and Jason Bourelly. The final match up was between New York's Next Level and Full Circle.
Next Level picked up David Muhammad to fight for them as a stand in and it was a good decision as he was one of the keys to moving Next Level to the final round with his 8-1 victory over Straight Up's Bobby Wallace in a semi-final round. Muhammad kept his team in the game with a 6-3 loss to Negron in the first fight for with Team Full Circle. Lawrence "Kodaq" Wray's 7-6 win over Ross Levine of Full Circle gave Next Level hope for a team sparring victory however, Bourelly was not going to let that happen and his 8-4 win over Anthony Merricks of Next Level sealed it for Full Circle.
There were some great fights in adult individual point sparring on Saturday. In the end, it was a Full Circle dominance as Victor Suarez, Ross Levine and Jason Bourelly all made it into to the final four and to the stage. The lone non-Full Circle fighter was Anthony Merricks of Next Level who got into the final four after two dramatic come from behind overtime victories in his division against Troy Binns and in the middleweight grands against Niko Negron. Although Steven Lennon didn't make it into the semi-finals for point sparring, he did leave his mark by eliminating 2009's semi-finalist Chance Turner with a kick to the head that knocked Turner out.
With the Saturday eliminations completed by 4:00 p.m., there was plenty of time to get some rest and delicious Philadelphia food before the start of the finals. The tournament was run that well!
The Finals
The night kicked off (literally) with a high flying demo from Amerikick Brooklyn, who had won the team demo challenge. Shortly following that event, the fans were treated to the Youth Weapons Overall Finals. Sammi Smith, Audrey Donihoo and Ricky Morris showed of their contemporary weapons forms while Kyle Montagna treated the Philadelphia crowd to the traditional side of weapons. Donihoo and Smith dropped their sword and chucks respectively and the judges chose Morris from the remaining two competitors.
After the juniors were finished, the Men's Point Fighting Semi Finals were under way. First up, Ross Levine duked it out with Anthony Merricks. Although Merricks' fights during the day were excruciatingly close, this time Levine left nothing to chance with a 10-1 win to move on to the final round. Victor Suarez has been consistently appearing on stage in 2010 and he faced teammate Jason Bourelly in the other semi-final match. Suarez just didn't have the reach to get past the big legs of Bourelly as Bourelly put together a 6-0 win to advance.
Philadelphia then got to see the adult's strut their stuff in the Overall Adult Forms Grand Championship. Jarett Leiker, Pamela Strasser (all the way from Italy), and Rudy Reynon from Team Paul Mitchell came to the stage. Leiker and Strasser showed traditional performances. However, it would be Reynon who would flip his way to the title with a few perfect 10s.
After the forms ended, we got to see more fighting but this time it was the women. Marie Eve DiCaire of Canada and Kim Wright competed in a tough fight but it would be DiCaire with a last second point who would advance to the next round. Jet Simms and Michelle Antolic would also fight it out for a chance to advance. Antolic scored enough to invoke the mercy rule (ten point spread) against Simms, earning her way to the next round.
Next up on the plate, was the youth tricks battle. For the girls, Gabby Messina, Scarlett Astudio and Nikki Stanley tricked it out to determine the winner. Despite a unique duet performed by Messina and Astudio, in the end it was Stanley who was awarded the first place and 200 dollar prize.
For the boys, Austin Crain, Nelson Zuniga and Jacob Pinto were flipping around the stage like no one's business. After they threw out their best moves, the judges couldn't decide. In the end, local competitor Zungia would take home the money in a three way, sudden death trick off. Zungia was swarmed by friends around the stage after his victory.
In an Amerikick Internationals only, sportmartialarts.com's own Mike Spizzuco won the Traditional Forms Challenge. Spizzuco defeated not only Americans in this division, but Canadians and Italians as well in what was truly an international affair.
After a demo from Amerikick Medford (the underbelt demo winners), it was the youth overall forms grand championship. Jacob Pinto, Dana Huor, Jacob Ellis and Carson Donihoo wowed the crowd with a mix of traditional and contemporary performances. The daytime run off championship was not enough as Donihoo's flips, tricks and kicks would prove to be too much for the other competitors to handle and he took home the overall grand championship title.
Next on the schedule was a superstar fight of immense proportions as the overall men's point sparring championship began. This was a clash of titans; Ross Levine vs. Jason Tankson Bourelly. In this rare match up, it was interesting to watch Levine try to work past Bourelly's trademark legs. After a tough fight, the score was notched at three to three forcing a sudden victory overtime. Levine reverted back to his successful hand techniques to get past Bourelly's formidable leg and countered with a vicious reverse punch to secure the win with a 4-3 score.
Following a demonstration by Amerkick South Philly (the black belt demo winners), the IllReality sponsored adult trick battle was up for grabs. Will Coneys, David Armstrong, Daniel Graham and Mo Alafrangy put any “tricker” in the audience to shame with the gravity defying moves they attempted. Graham would be the winner of the craziness on stage and take home the seven hundred dollar prize with Alafrangy as the runner up.
Marie Eve DiCaire and Michelle Antolic brawled on-stage to determine the overall women's point sparring grand champion. After a hard-fought bout, it would be DiCaire who would be crowned the winner of the Amerikick Women's Point Sparring Grand Championship with an 8-5 score bringing the gold back to Canada.
One of the final divisions was the Overall Weapons Grand Championship. This was a co-ed division as Jarrett Leiker and Rudy Reynon returned to the stage this time with Becca Ross as their foe. Leiker's traditional bo performance earned all 9.99s and a 9.98. Ross was doing well and then dropped her bo and bowed out leaving only Reynon to challenge Leiker. Reynon had some technical glitches with his music and decided to just go ahead with no music at all. His performance earned three 10s but also two 9.98s! After the scorekeepers counted and recounted a few times, Reynon was declared the winner by a mere 100th of a point..
Finally, it was the World Team Challenge finals. This came down to Team Full Circle and Team Next Level. Almost a rematch of the men's team sparring division except this time each team had to field four men and one woman. Team Full Circle was defending its 2009 title in the World Team Challenge at this event.
The first match was between the women as Mia Kelly of Full Circle facd Michelle Antolic of Next Level. Antonlic used her experience to keep Kelly at bay and give Next Level a 7-3 starting lead. Anthony Merrick was back on stage again for Next Level in the second match and he faced Niko Negron. During the daytime eliminations, you'll recall that Merricks defeated Negron in their division in overtime by a point. This time, Negron pulled no punches and sent a message with a 6-2 win. This tied the team score 9-9.
Ross Levine of Full Circle faced Steven Lennon who fought for Next Level. Levine is one of the top fighters but Lennon decided that didn't matter to him as he took the lead and held it, ending the match with a 6-3 score and putting his team up by three points with only two fights to go. Usually it is Levine or Jason Bourelly who get sent in when the pressure is on in a team match but this time, the fourth fighter for Full Circle was Cass Sigmon and he faced Kodaq Wray. Sigmon had won his light heavyweight division during the daytime eliminations and he used his kicks and timing to keep Wray from scoring anything while putting five points on the board.
With Full Circle up by two points, it was time for the final fight. Next Level decided to recruit Travis Plowden of Team Paul Mitchell to fight in their anchor spot. Plowden faced Jason Bourelly of Team Full Circle. With his uncle and training coach Richard Plowden in the audience, Travis turned on the heat against Bourelly and started earning the points. He had the team scored tied up when, literally, as the buzzer sounded Plowden was awarded a point to give Next Level the win. Next Level toppled the very strong Team Full Circle to bring the World Team Challenge 2010 title home to the state of New York.
With the finals completed at a reasonable ten in the evening, it was time to experience all that Philadelphia had to offer. Competitors and their friends and families headed out to explore the home of the Phillies while many headed for the hotel bar or Hard Rock Cafe to hang out with their tournament family. A job well-done by the tournament promoters and staff and especially by the competitors who provided great entertainment for the spectators!
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