It was a busy weekend for us here at Ivey League.
This past Saturday we had more then a day’s worth of stuff going on. Everything from travel to tournaments to MMA fights.
We took a team to the Naga grappling tournament, held in Pennsylvania and to Middletown Delaware, for the Steller MMA Fights.
So yeah, a lot going on. Lucky for us, we’re pretty good at multi tasking so Miss Teresa took a group of both adults and kids to the Naga and Coach Danny took Robert and staff to the fights in Del.
In the end it all worked out just fine 🙂 The cool thing was that after the grappling tournament many of the families came down to catch the fights and support Ivey League. That’s a win in our book.
Let’s start with the Naga tournament. Below you’ll find a breakdown as well as the results. *Bolded names brought home gold medals.
Alexia Lara, Gold
Joe Mann, Gold
Kyle Rocke, Gold
Katiness Crino, Gold
Zachary “Cutter” Gardner
Robert “Bicep” Mish, Gold
Erica Mish
Mathew Graham
Eric Graham
Michael Graham
AJ “Bulut” Garay, Gold
Shahid Shafiq
Drew Dvorak
Emily Dvorak
WikiFish Avila, Gold
Christian Cuiba
The standout of the day would have to go to longtime student Alexia Lara. She not only performed extremely well but she also won her first expert division title, something she’d be hunting down for a long time.
Another up and comer who stood out was young Zachary Gardner, who we also call Cutter. Although Cutter didn’t bring back a gold medal he did improve his tournament game by leaps and bounds. That’s what it’s all about, getting better each and every time you step out on the mat.
For the adult squad, newcomer Shahid Shafiq showed he’s got the ability to do big things in the future. He did well, placing second in his nogi division. We know he wanted a gold but for a first time out that’s not a bad place to be.
Overall the coaching staff felt the team was pretty sharp for September. Obviously fixes will need to be made but that’s normal. We’ll set some new goals and chase them relentlessly like always.
That same night Ivey League’s new MMA product Robert Melendez stepped inside the cage for the first time at Steller Fights in Middletown Delaware.
Robert didn’t disappoint as he went on to win a 3 round unanimous decision. Let us assure you, it was a hard fought dicision to. His opponent was game. The good thing is so was Robert.
The real winner was the crowd! It was very exciting to say the least.
Congrats Robert! Keep working toward that goal of fighting in the UFC.
Next up for Ivy League will be the in-house smoker Muay Thai fights. That’s going to be held at Crazy 88 on 10/12/2013.
Then we’ve for the IL BBQ on 10/18/2013. That includes the drawing for the free TV and labtop.
For the kids the Naga NJ will be next on the menu.
Cheers!
