Tournament Review: Shark City Nationals

Sharks were certainly circling near the vicinity of the San Jose Convention Center on June 12th, as blood, sweat, and tears were spilled via feisty sport martial arts competition at Promoter Tony & Theresa Kattengall’s SHARK CITY NATIONALS in San Jose, CA.

The fifth tournament in the 2010 BASKA regular season, the Shark City Nationals gave competitors an opportunity to collide with the West Coast’s best sport martial art gladiators. Despite being centered in the heart of the sweltering heat of San Jose, the event was nestled in a spacious, air-conditioned event center that allowed athletes to focus on their competition tasks.

In the daytime eliminations, the adult kata grands were populated by Garrett Allen, Jerico Catura, Allen Paulo and Scott Wu. Despite strong performances and high runner-up scores by Catura and Paulo, it was the poise and power of Wu’s kata display that took the grand prize. Wu would score three near-perfect 9.99 scores to snatch the victory. Later on stage at the Nighttime show finale, Wu would lock horns with the 35+yrs Weapons winner Ervic Aquino. Both athletes would display flawless katas in their first go-around and five judges couldn’t determine a clear winner as they scored both national champions at a tie. In their tie-breaking kata runoff, Wu would pull out a victory by a .01 margin and nab the Overall Kata Grand title at this year’s Shark City tournament.

Things were heated in the Men’s Black Belt Sparring divisions. Young and rising fighting star Patrick Salientes from TEAM PROPER pulled out the divisional victory in the Lightweight class. TEAM PAUL MITCHELL member DeAndre Walker pulled out a big win versus Matt Okada to win the Middleweight division. While TEAM USA ALL STARS fighter Michael Jefferson was victorious in the Heavyweight division. Tyrone Ward would win the 35yrs+ title. In the Overall Grand runoff, Walker and Salientes met in a rowdy semi-finalfight which saw a heated altercation between both camps. After cooler heads prevailed, Walker would advance to the Night Show Finals with a solid victory over the speedy Salientes. Erstwhile, Jefferson would convincingly defeat Ward to setup a Walker-Jefferson final. The Walker-Jefferson mega-match was a good one. Both fighters came out bombing their best attacks, but a late flurry of scores by Jefferson allowed him to notch the grand champion victory by a multiple point margin.

In the “Shark City Superfights” division the finalists dwindled down to TEAM PROPER veteran Paul Mendoza and up-and-comer Jason Hammons. From TEAM KNKT. The match stretched out to a 1-to-1 tie after regulation time expired. This being the first meeting between the two, both fighters seemingly couldn’t get comfortable on offense. After several close overtime clashes, Mendoza was able to score on a whipping lead hand backhand to take the Superfights cash prize.

James Gilbeaux was the story of the afternoon with a tremendous victory in boys junior point sparring in the 14-17yr. old class. Gilbeaux got past skilled teen fighters Brandon Nunley, Anthony Lagdamen, Raymond Horne and Nick Cassell. Gilbeaux fleet-footedness and awe-inspiring quickness enabled him to sweep past through his opponents rather easily. We should be hearing a lot more from Gilbeaux for years to come.

In Women’s fighting, two of the Bay Area’s most dominating female fighters continued their reign as both Joslynn Espinoza of Team Dynamic and Darcy Machado of Team KNKT made it to the grand finale with victories in the lightweight and middleweight divisions. In their last meeting at the UNITY CHAMPIONSHIPS in May, Machado was able to eek out a 1-point victory. This time around, Espinoza returned the favor with a convincing win in the night time show Finals.

Karla Hernandez from San Pablo,CA continued her successful 2010 campaign by winning the 14-17yr old Adv/Black Belt female point sparring grands. She defeated Nicole Zelnik and Alexis Jackson to get the cherished victory.

Other notable Grand Champion winners included: Derek Salientes (10-11yr Nov/Int boys sparing), Trenton Greene (8-9yrs boys sparring), Bobby Seronio Jr (10-11yr Adv/BB boys sparirng), Richie Sumner (12-13yr Nov/Int boys sparring), Tyra Co (10-13yrs Adv Open Forms), Carissa Nunotani (10-13yrs Nov/Int Kata), Brandon Aquino (9&under Adv/BB Katas, 9&under Adv/BB Open, 13 and Under Overall Kata), Noah Fort (9&under Nov/Int Open Forms), Kathryn Kaldunski (18yrs+ Nov/Int/Adv Katas), Lauren Zelnik (10-13yr Adv Katas), Courtneylee Conroy (9&under Int Katas), Mya Lagdamen (9&under Novice Katas), Asara Price (10-11 Adv/BB Girls Sparring), Austin Huff (7&under Boys Sparring), and Amanda Ibarra (10-11yr Nov/Int Girls Sparring).

Photos