Liberty University Club Sports Athletics
Flames sophomore Ericson Lehmann kicks against a Duke University competitor at the ACAT event at UNC Chapel Hill. (Photo by Reyna Collazo)
Taekwondo team preparing for spring semester debut at Princeton
2/22/2024 12:27:00 PM | Taekwondo
After Sunday's ECTC tournament, Liberty will send its top competitors to the NCTA National Championships hosted by UC Berkeley from April 10-12.
Liberty University's taekwondo team will open spring semester competition at an East Coast Taekwondo Conference (ECTC) meet on Sunday at Princeton (N.J.) University.
"We're really excited to be back for the spring semester and ready to get going," Head Coach Tom Childress said. "Every year, we have seniors that are graduating and leaving the team and new people coming to the team … so it's always fun to see how the team is going to gel, building that sense of team camaraderie and genuinely caring for one other to go out and compete."
The Flames and Lady Flames placed second at their first Atlantic Collegiate Alliance of Taekwondo (ACAT) tournament at UNC Chapel Hill on Oct. 29 and their first ECTC meet at Cornell (N.Y.) University on Nov. 5.
"We had several people win individual events and team events in fighting and finished second in our division at ECTC," Childress said. "Almost every single team member medaled at the ACAT event, which really shows how hard they are working and trying to be good at what they do."
This Sunday's competition at Princeton could be their final tune-up for the National Collegiate Taekwondo Association (NCTA) National Championships from April 12-14 at the University of California Berkeley.
"We look forward to going to Princeton and seeing how we do against ECTC competition, which is usually our watermark for how we are going to do at nationals," Childress said. "At Berkeley, we'll see more of the West Coast teams that we don't usually get to see in our ECTC competitions, UC Davis and UC Berkeley. Those are really huge teams and really good teams, so we always love being able to go out West and seeing how we're doing overall."
"We're all super excited for this semester," Lady Flames sophomore Heaven Alexander added. "We always love representing Liberty and showing how to be a Champion for Christ through taekwondo … and we're ready to just give everything we've got."
Video by Kamia Cooper/Club Sports Video & Media Intern
"We're really excited to be back for the spring semester and ready to get going," Head Coach Tom Childress said. "Every year, we have seniors that are graduating and leaving the team and new people coming to the team … so it's always fun to see how the team is going to gel, building that sense of team camaraderie and genuinely caring for one other to go out and compete."
The Flames and Lady Flames placed second at their first Atlantic Collegiate Alliance of Taekwondo (ACAT) tournament at UNC Chapel Hill on Oct. 29 and their first ECTC meet at Cornell (N.Y.) University on Nov. 5.
"We had several people win individual events and team events in fighting and finished second in our division at ECTC," Childress said. "Almost every single team member medaled at the ACAT event, which really shows how hard they are working and trying to be good at what they do."
This Sunday's competition at Princeton could be their final tune-up for the National Collegiate Taekwondo Association (NCTA) National Championships from April 12-14 at the University of California Berkeley.
"We look forward to going to Princeton and seeing how we do against ECTC competition, which is usually our watermark for how we are going to do at nationals," Childress said. "At Berkeley, we'll see more of the West Coast teams that we don't usually get to see in our ECTC competitions, UC Davis and UC Berkeley. Those are really huge teams and really good teams, so we always love being able to go out West and seeing how we're doing overall."
"We're all super excited for this semester," Lady Flames sophomore Heaven Alexander added. "We always love representing Liberty and showing how to be a Champion for Christ through taekwondo … and we're ready to just give everything we've got."
Video by Kamia Cooper/Club Sports Video & Media Intern
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/ Taekwondo
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