High flying kicks and family accomplishments highlighted
the recent testing of Stevens Taekwondo
Academy students at the Stevens Point YMCA.
Six students gained new or advanced black belts. Tanner
Rogers, Chong Chang and Jacob Kujawa
all achieved second degree black belts with
their performance of advanced kicks, sparring and the keumgang
form. Rogers shattered a two inch board
very impressively using a flying side kick over four chairs. Chang and Kujawa each broke two-inch boards with back spinning side kicks.
Daniel Roach and Anika Brandl earned full black belt
status in their testing. Both demonstrated advanced kicks , sparring and koryo
and four tae geuk forms. Roach used a
working step back spinning side kick to break his board, and Brandl executed the
same kick using her non-dominant leg to break.
Nine-year-old Oliver
Shave joined black belt ranks as a deputy black belt after performing
kicks, sparring and five taegeuk forms.
Shave, who broke his board with a
skipping side kick, is the second generation of Shave black belts. His parents Peter and Nikki Shave,
met each other at taekwondo.
Three of the more than twenty color belt students received
trophies for excellence in testing. High
yellow belt Chandler Ludke won first
place, high green belt Zaid Alkasrawi
grabbed second, and blue belt Samara
Poirier took home the third place trophy.
Poirier is a third generation taekwondo student—her grandfather Richard
Klapoetke, uncle Kevin Klapoetke and parents Mark Poirier and Karen Klapoetke-Poirier
all earned black belts through Stevens Taekwondo Academy.
Master instructor Dwight
Stevens was assisted in judging the testing by senior master Bill Dragolovich and master Dan Zierke. Master Kim
Buehler directed testing.
Local Students Medal at
Tournament
Four taekwondo students from UW-Stevens Point brought home
medals from the UW-Invitational Taekwondo Tournament in Madison recently.
Tanner Rogers won
two bronze medals, for placing third in
both forms and sparring in mens black belt division. Red belt Mandi
Salm competed in the womens black belt division and grabbed second place
for sparring. Black belt Jake Kujawa earned as bronze medal in
sparring and in his first tournament, high
white belt Roland Fuller brought back the bronze medal in forms
competition.
