brian stephens slams his opponent

Army Judo Defeats Air Force

Continues Its Dominance Over Both Sister Academies

By Michael Kolton 

Air Force traveled to West Point to fight the Army Team on 6 November. In a competition the morning before the football game, the Army Team took a 5-1 victory over Air Force. The team competition consisted of a 6 person roster with 5 male and a 1 female competitor. Following a traditional construct, team competition does not have weight classes. Rather, players are paired by their relative size so that a team lines up lightest to heaviest plus a single female and then fight head-to-head against an opposing team. By eliminating weight-classes, the competition dramatically increases the requirement for strong conditioning and solid technique.

The Army Team soundly defeated Air Force with 4 of the 5 wins being taken by ippon, the Judo equivalent of a knockout. Team President Tanilla McDaniel began the competition with a quick defeat of Air Force’s Joy Lee. Next, Junior Dave Dunham slammed his opponent with a counter throw that earned him a wazari, a near knockout throw. After additional fighting, Dave got in on a strong shoulder throw and scored an ippon. Sophomore Jordon Bellamy fought a longer match, but got his throw after some grip fighting. Junior Mike Lee took a huge uchimata (Inner Thigh Throw) in the first seconds of his match slamming his opponent into the mat. Freshman Brent Carr fought one Air Force’s best fighters, Chris Culver. Brent won by points with several major and minor throws but no knockout ippons.

After the team competition, Army and Air Force held a several exhibition matches that Army continued to dominate. Sophomore Sara Knutson came back from a point deficit to beat Air Force with a pin, and Freshman Sara Drane choked out her opponent in the first minute of the match. Freshman Marcus Lai claimed his first competition win with a huge seio nage (shoulder throw) in the last minutes of the fight. Sophomore Jason Lam also threw his opponent to an ippon victory. Senior Brian Stephens slammed his much larger opponent with a solid seio otoshi (shoulder drop throw), and Team Captain Michael Kolton threw his opponent with morote seoinage (two arm shoulder throw).

The competition followed Army’s previous defeat of Navy. With a undisputed claim to dominate both academies, the Army Team looks to continue its growing strength at the national level. With unquestionable potential, the Army Team seeks to capture a team top 3 finish at collegiate nationals, a very difficult national level competition. Army’s incredibly young team also offers tremendous hope for the future sustained growth for the team. The team continues to gain more and more attention from the national coaches and referees for its uncommon performance at competition. The only thing that will limit Army Judo is funding and time.