| Submitted by: SportMartialArts.com staff |
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| Audrie Donihoo won two grand championship titles at the event. |
We were reluctant to write a review about the 2010 Gator Nationals that took place May 14-15, 2010 in Daytona Beach, Florida. Why? Because the Gator Nationals is one of the NASKA world tours' best kept secrets and writing a review means the secret is going to get out and possibly turn this fantastic event into something that everyone is talking about! The venue - the Daytona Beach Ocean Center with thousands of square feet of space. Daytona Beach boasted beautiful weather and the hotel - right on the beach with all ocean-front facing rooms.
"Now this is what a tournament venue should look like!" was heard as one coach entered the Ocean Center. The arena was huge with stadium seating, mats for all rings and a nice stage set up for the night time finals. Other attendees were enthralled with the location - "I woke up at 7:00 a.m. to drink coffee and watch the sunrise from my balcony!" exclaimed Jacob Pinto's dad. Considering he hails from a beachfront city in California, he must really have loved the Florida ocean view to make such a statement.
Describing all the great competition at the Gator Nationals is going to make it hard to keep the event under wraps. The result could mean this little gem of an event will move to the top of everyone's travel list. That would be a good thing for the event, but we still like having this one in our pocket and knowing we have the goods on something that few others are aware of!
On Friday evening, there was not a huge turn out for the Gator Challenge Superfights and El Java Abdul Qadir advanced to face Julio Lugo in the finals. For the women, Nicole Pelland defeated Terri Jacoby to advance and face Morgan Plowden , daughter of the legendary Richard Plowden , for the title. What was lacking in turn out for the Superfights was made up for in the turn out for men's 3-man team sparring with eight teams lining up for a chance at the title. With Raymond Daniels as the anchor, most predicted that Team All Stars would definitely be in the Gator Nationals finals - and most also predicted that Team All Stars would win the overall title. Team All Stars handily took out Team MMA 2 and Victory to advance to the finals. In the other bracket, anchored by Ross Levine, worked their way through Team Gypsy and local Team Velocity to move into the finals.
Team Full Circle also took a first team sparring title in the women's ring with Nicole Pelland and Melanie Ortiz defeating Team Florida's Jenny Espina and Terri Jacoby .
While the men were battling, the juniors were busy competing in the extreme and musical weapons and forms eliminations. There were big wins from familiar names like Andrew Franklin, Austin Crain , Cole Eckert , Jacob Pinto and Samantha Smith but there were also some great performances by kids that don't always get the spotlight. We liked what we saw from Sam Burgess, Fabio Chiappina and local competitor Alex Patterson.
On Saturday there were some inspiring performances. In girls 16-17 point sparring Mia Kelly and Felicia Marcial battled for the title with Marcial coming out on top with an 11-10 final score. We saw Hunter Crain perform once on Friday evening and he didn't win the division that we were watching but he won his division on Saturday and made it into the run offs for the boys 14-17 creative/extreme/musical run offs. Crain has been competing for years and is always in the top 3 or 4 in his division but rarely gets into the spotlight. Why? Because he has some of the most innovative bo moves for a junior - but he seems to drop his weapon during performances on a regular basis. This time he got himself into the run offs and went in strong and won to make it to the stage for the first time all year.
In adult fighting during Saturday eliminations there were some interesting occurrences that could only be found in Florida. In the 30-39 men's light middleweight division, El Java Abdul Qadir delivered a broken cheek to his opponent in the final match. In the 18-29 men's middleweight division Steven Lennon Jr went all the way to the final round - and defeated Chad Cannon for the win. However, along the way he took a good 4-5 hard shots to the groin, causing some concern about his future reproductive abilities!
In the heavyweight competition, Ross Levine defeated all while his arch nemesis Raymond Daniels won in the light heavyweight division. The two faced each other for the men's heavyweight point sparring grand championship. Levine was absolutely determined the win. Daniels showed his human side by throwing up prior to the fight - something he does periodically before matches. The fight was intense and close and ended with a 6-5 score in favor of Daniels with a very disappointed Levine. Joe Fife, the superlight weight fighter ended up making it through all opponents to make it to the stage to face Daniels for the overall grand championship title.
The most fascinating thing that happened in adult sparring was in the men's middleweight division during the fight between Juan Marmelejo and Eli Thompson - both local fighters. The match was filled with late hits, arguments and general malcontent between the fighters. Florida fighters have a long history of dislike amongst them which have often resulted in point sparring matches turning into real fist fights and bench clearing brawls. The audience was ready for Marmelejo and Thompson's match to erupt at any moment as the two kept pounding each other and getting into the other's face even after the center referee called for the fight to stop.
What actually happened is something that no one expected. The two fighters exchanged blows and Thompson continued to throw punches and sound off after center referee Damon Gilbert called stop. The crowd was on the edge of its seat waiting for Marmelejo to retaliate when out of no where, Marmelejo's girlfriend jumped out of the audience and punched Thompson in the face. She was about to continue her assault when she was pulled off of Thompson and then she suddenly ran off and disappeared. The judges were perplexed - and the audience thoroughly entertained. Chance Turner brought it all home when he declared "I wish my girl loved me that much!" Oh how right he was - it was true love in the ring. But this romantic display did not garner the sympathy of the judges as both fighters were penalized after the exchange. In the end, Thompson won the fight with a 6-2 score and was later eliminated in the division by Steven Lennon, Jr, the divisional winner.
The Gator Nationals finals involved the top competitors from the daytime eliminations. The first surprise of the evening was the opening demo performance by none other than K.I.C.K. Team of Georgia. And leading the team? Jake Strickland - he's still got some tricks and put on a great show. Joining him were some faces from years past such as Tonae Mayer, AJ Ford and David Penland .
Following the demo, the youth weapons competition started. Creative/Musical/Extreme ( CMX ) competition started the show. Hunter Crain got his chance and was looking great but a dropped weapon kept him from even getting scored. Mackensi Emory and her kamas looked intense and Jackson Rudolph's bo performance was full of smart moves but the evening belonged to Audrie Donihoo and her sword performance. But Donihoo was not done with the CMX title, she was back for the youth traditional weapons title and her sword cut through all challengers to give her a second grand champion title of the evening. Donihoo's challengers were Jessie Pelligrino , Kyle Montagna and Jackson Rudolph.
The youth traditional forms grand championships opened with little Danny Etkin and his Japanese performance. He looks so mean but it serves to only make him cuter! Amanda Chen performed well and Cole Eckert was going strong until a slip on a stance took him out of the running. In the end, Dayna Huor was declared the winner of the event. In the youth CMX forms competition Mackensi Emory fell during her performance which closed the door on her chances. Jacob Pinto and Samantha Suddeth gave it their all but Cole Eckert redeemed himself to take the win this evening.
Team Paul Mitchell's Marc Canonizado and Caitlin Dechelle were polished and clean in the synchronized team competition. They handily defeated Team Velocity's bo performance that was led by junior Felicia Marcial .
It was unusual to see only traditional forms on stage for adults but that is what the Gators decided to highlight this evening. For the women, Olivia Wicker, Giselle Segura and Nikki Stanley were the competitors. Stanley's near vertical kicks in her Korean form sealed the deal for her title. In the men's traditional form championships, Jarrett Leiker , Micky Lee and 2009 Diamond Nationals grand champion Will Cornell battled. This evening Cornell's Japanese performance could not top the soft style moves of Micky Lee.
The adults got to show their acrobatic moves in the CMX weapons competition. For the women, Caitlin Dechelle and her sword defeated Becca Ross and her bo . In the men's competition, Marc Canonizado (who recently moved to Los Angeles, California to become a stuntman) opened with his sword. Following Canonizado was Ross Levine and his creative bo form. But the closing double sword performance of Kalman Csoka did what it normally does - garnered lots of perfect 10s and another grand championship title for the young performer.
The Gator Nationals has a vibrant history when it comes to fights. The 2003 Gator Nationals featured some of the most talked about fight match ups when Raymond Daniels faced local talent Preston Clements and Jack Felton faced Alex Lane when they were both junior fighters. With that backdrop, the fighting in the finals offered some great match ups. The finals fighting included not only adults but junior team fights. In the junior team fighting, Florida's Team MMA faced Team Velocity. MMA was up 11-9 after the first two rounds but Velocity came back to win on the back of its anchor Ernesto " Tico " Flores as he led his team to victory.
In the men's point sparring grand championship, Raymond Daniels' reach proved far too much for the much, much smaller Joe Fife as Daniels won the title with a 4-1 score. The women's grand championship sparring match was between new adult Morgan Plowden and 40 and over experienced fighter Sue Brazelton . Brazelton kept it close but Plowden ended with a 7-4 victory and her first overall NASKA women's sparring grand champion.
Plowden had a chance to double her titles for the evening as she faced Nicole Pelland for the women's Superfight championships. This time Plowden couldn't turn out another win as Pelland , who had recently won the grand championship title at the Ocean State Grand Nationals, won the fight by a 6-4 score. El Java Abdul Qadir won a close one over Julio Lugo for the men's Superfight title as his fight ended with a 4-2 score.
The most exciting match up in sparring for the evening was the men's team sparring finals. Team All Stars and Team Full Circle were the contenders. In round one, Chris Walker of All Stars faced Houston Thomas. Walker was back in town after recently moving to California but he appears to be working out in California as he defeated Thomas 4-3. In round two, Joe Fife of All Stars faced Julio Lugo . Fife was able to score two points but so was Lugo and the match moved into the final round with a team score of 6 All Stars to 5 for Full Circle.
The final fight came down to two fighters who have clashed before. Ross Levine versus Raymond "the Real Deal" Daniels. At this point, Levine was ready to do anything to finally defeat his rival. Daniels was confident with his one point lead -after all, he's led teams down by 14 or more point to victory with his talent. Levine played it smart during the match and didn't allow Daniels to run up the score while scoring the needed three points to Daniels' two to force the fight into overtime. In the sudden victory overtime competition, Levine scored with a dramatic kick that had the crowd roaring and had Team Full Circle being awarded the men's team sparring title for the event.
The cat is out of the bag now - the Gator Nationals had it all for competitors and families. A great venue, a family vacation location, a hotel with all ocean views and great competition all wrapped up into one event. Now that you know, you can go and tell people about this NASKA secret - everybody else is talking about it already.
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