This past weekend the NAGA (North American Grappling Assiassion) held another one of their fantastic tournaments, This time in Morristown NJ.
It was billed as the “world” championships of NAGA.
Never one to back down from a challenge, Ivey League sent a team of both kids and adults to compete in NJ. I’m happy to say the results we got back were more then encouraging.
Oh and I should apologize in advance…my phone was completely full so I lack the normal amount of cool action pics from the tournament…my bad.
The overall results are posted below (1st place winners are in RED):
- Mike Murphy – 4th
- AJ Hall – 2nd
- Holden Murphy – DNP
- Michael “Mouth” Garlington – 1st
- CC Fowler – 1st
- Nick Peters – 1st
- Magnus Benz – 1st
- Scarface McKann – 2nd
- Robbie Ballinger – 4th
- Sean Garlington – 2nd
As you can see, Ivey League had a pretty good tournament. Thanks so much to our students for stepping up to the plate ready with their “A-Games”.
Keep on reading for a complete rundown of who competed, how they did, and notable performances for the weekend.
Mike Murphy
Mike ended up placing 4th in the Masters Purple/Brown Belt Division. Now that might not sound like much but what most people don’t know is that Mike’s only a blue belt in BJJ!
Mike wowed everyone in the crowd with his heart and toughness. All that combined with good grip fighting and takedowns no doubt put Mike back on the competitive map.
Nick Peters
Nick was outstanding. He placed first in his NoGi division and did so with a variety of different techniques including hip tosses, armbars and stand ups from the turtle.
Nick’s only been training for 7 months and I’ve gotta be honest, at this point I’m not sure there’s anything this fine young man can’t do.
Magnus Benz
Magnus might have been the star of the weekend. He placed first in the NoGi Expert Division, beating some really good kids in the process.
It’s amazing to see just how Magnus has come. He showcased many of his newer skills and used both submission holds and point scoring on the way to a shinny gold medal.
Michael Garlington
Michael or better known around here as “Mouth”, continued his winning ways, bringing back double gold medals in both Gi and NoGi.
His finals match in Gi featured a showdown of current Pan Kids Champions and nationally ranked youth fighters.
Mouth showed why he’s one of the top up and coming kids in the United States, coming away with a 6-0 victory and another 1st place honor to add to his growing collection.
AJ Hall
AJ just keeps getting better and better. At a mere 4.5 months of total training time AJ was able to place 2nd in the mens white belt division.
What AJ lacks in experance he more then made up for with his fighting spirit and never say die attitude.
As time goes on I think it’s a safe bet that AJ will be producing a sizable amount of gold medals to hand on his room walls.
CC Fowler
CC took to the mats after a few tough weeks for the Fowler Family. CC lost his grandfather suddenly 3 weeks ago. Our condolensises to the family.
We told her she could skip this tournament but CC said told us her grandfather would have wanted her to compete.
Compete she did. CC won the gold medal in the Youth Intermeidite Division and did so with relative ease. I think we can all agree, grandpa would be very proud 🙂
Robbie “Skunkie” Ballinger
Robbie or AKA “Skunkie” keeps getting after it and this time placed 4th in a tough division. He didn’t scoop up the gold but that’s okay.
He showed marked improvement in all areas. He also showed us he’s got a ton of heart, never giving up no matter what the scoreboard displayed.
Keep this up young Skunkie and sooner or later you’re going to find the success you’ve been searching for.
Jacob Miller
Jacob Miller, one of our all time best kids competiters, brings back a 2nd place finish in what turned out to be one of the more difficult divisions at the entire NAGA.
Just to be clear, it’s not just about 1st place and gold medals. That was definetly the case here with Jacob.
But at the same time he beat some tough kids along the way and put up more then just a good fight in the finals.
In the finals he lost to one of the nations top ranked kids, 6-2. During that match he was able to defend many high level attacks that other kids walked right into.
I can’t help but think that loss is an experience that’s going to bring his BJJ game to a whole new level.
Sean Garlington
Sean placed 2nd in his Gi Division. What’s funny is he was more exited to have succored his first armbar in the semis!
This was Sean’s first time at the intermediate level and I’m pretty sure bringing back a silver medal would be considered good.
Scarface McKann
This is one of the few times that our little buddy Scarface didn’t place #1. He ended up with 2nd place and I get the feeling wasn’t particularly pleased with that.
While he didn’t meet his overall goal of first place, he sure did gain some valuable experience and picked up some good wins at the same.
So there you have it. Another NAGA Event is in the books for Ivey League Mixed Martial Arts. Definitely a good showing that gives us good momentum going into the summer season.
Next up for the competition team will be the NAGA Virginia Beach followed by the IBJJF American Nationals in Las Vegas…Stay tuned!
