Submisison-Only 3

We (U.S. Grappling) ran our third submission-only, no time limits, no points tournament on Saturday. We got to the venue before 7 AM, got the mats and registration area set up, and opened up the weigh ins at 8 AM. Weigh ins officially ended at 10 AM, and the first brackets were printing at 10:45 AM - terrific! We got the matches going right at 11 AM.

Right off the bat, we had our longest match of the day between Micah Crouse and Tim Koren in the advanced no-gi 159.9 division- 3 hours! Both guys withdrew due to exhaustion at the three hour mark, and were unable to continue in their divisions.

Notable performances: Ryan Hall won the 159 division and the advanced absolute division, finishing Rob Mudrak with a heel hook from the 50/50 position (I know - shocker). Mudrak had a great day himself, winning 11 matches and losing only in the advanced absolute finals.

My student Tommy had the second longest match of the day at about an hour and a half. He faced Firas from Tony Passos's school. These guys had rolled the Wednesday before at my gym (and I rolled with Firas a couple times). In the end, Firas was able to finish Tommy with an armlock in a transition. Tommy won his weight division with the gi, which bodes well for his training for the Mundial in June.

Devin won against a tough Mike Troxel in his blue belt division, and then lost in the finals to take 2nd. We've got some things to work on before June, but Devin is game, and is always improving.

Big Jus did great, winning 3 matches by Kimura in his white belt 30+ division.

JB, Sean Kelley, and several other students had some good days, winning a bunch of matches and taking their lumps as well.

Alaina Hardie finished a match with a kneebar. She owes me $100 for that, since I showed her how to finish it Thursday night.

Results are already posted here.