Trophies awarded to County Champions

Students and instructors alike earned 31 trophies during an Ellsworth tournament hosted by Tracy’s Karate. 26 students and 12 black belt instructors from various branches of Graves Institute of Self Defense competed in point sparring, ju jitsu and power impactor divisions, each broken into groups designated by sex, age, weight and belt levels from beginning white belts up through advanced black belts.
    For point sparring matches, randomly selected pairs enter the ring to exchange striking and kicking techniques for a two-minute round or until one fighter scores a total of three points against an opponent. In these single elimination matches, only the winner moves on to the next round of sparring. Fights are overseen and scored by four corner judges and a chief referee, all black belt instructors, and matches continue in each division until the top three martial artists are determined and awarded trophies.
Ju jitsu matches consist of two partners performing a series of six random throws of varied difficulty. In each age and belt color division, five judges rank the pairs on a 1-10 scale with scores divided by one-tenth of a point. High and low scores are dropped, and the total of the remaining three scores designate the finishing order and the top three trophy winners for each group, whose order of performance is determined by random draw. Throws for each division gain in intricacy, difficulty and precision as experience and belt levels increase.
A handful of Graves’ students managed the difficult feat of becoming duel trophy winners by placing in the top three of two different competitions. Five local martial artists won awards in fighting and ju jitsu. Sensei Allie Sullivan went a step farther and brought home one of only four huge three-tier black-belt grandchampionship trophies. His first step was to be the first place finisher in his lightweight black belt fighting division, and then the smaller Sullivan had to face off with the winner of the heavyweight division. Sensei Sullivan won the match in less than two minutes with a score of three points to one to garner the top black belt award. To make the day even sweeter for the Sullivan family, her daughter, Sensei Megan Sullivan, a 15-year-old junior black belt, also won first place in her point sparring division. Even the non-winning students enjoyed the competition, got valuable experience and are looking forward to the next tournament.