Sophomore black belt Ericson Lehmann (left) earned a silver medal in breaking.
Taekwondo athletes earn four medals at NCTA Nationals in California
4/17/2024 3:46:00 PM | Taekwondo
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Liberty's nine color belt competitors and three black belts captured three silver medals and one bronze at UC-Berkeley.
Liberty University's taekwondo team captured three silver medals and one bronze medal from this past Friday's through Sunday's National Collegiate Taekwondo Association (NCTA) Championships hosted by the University of California Berkeley.
The Flames and Lady Flames sent nine color belts and three black belts with one, sophomore Ericson Lehmann, placing second in breaking and the other two — senior middleweight Jenna (Greene) Gonino and junior welterweight Jackson Hale — both won their Round of 16 matches before being eliminated in the quarterfinals.
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Julie Eesley moved up to Red Belt and earned a silver medal.
Sophomore Julia Eesley, who won the blue belt national lightweight championship at last year's nationals, moved up to red belt and placed second in fighting in her division while senior Paul Bearchell competed as blue belt heavyweight and also earned a silver medal for second place in his division. Meanwhile, junior Katherine Rioux finished third in the women's heavyweight blue belt division to claim bronze.
"Fighting went really well overall, though in some cases, the first person our competitors fought ended up winning the national championship," said Liberty Head Coach Tom Childress, who was not able to join the team as he is still recovering from knee replacement surgery. "Assistant Coaches Jim Scott and Cameron Connelly said every match out there was competitive, and that all the guys and girls represented Liberty very well."
Childress noted that the team also enjoyed their stay in California, as they visited the Golden Gate Bridge and took a tour of Alcatraz Island. He was able to view many of the athletes' matches online and offer feedback.
"Watching videos of fights, you can always find areas where you can improve, from a coaching point of view and a competitor's point of view," Childress said. "There is an ongoing critique, of tactics and technique, and we do that constantly. Right now, we are going to reset and work toward improving in those areas."
All of Liberty's color belt athletes also competed in poomsae, also known as forms, which the team has improved in this season under instruction from Connelly.
"They had some really good scores, but they were just not high enough to make it to the medal rounds," Childress said.
The Flames and Lady Flames feature the largest senior class in recent memory, according to Childress.
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The team visited San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge as well as Alcatraz.
"Of the athletes that went to nationals, only a couple will be returning," he said. "We are losing quite a bit of talent and experience, including Jenna (Green) Gonino who was a former national champion in her third year as a team captain. That's a big loss for us."
He is hopeful that if she does stay in the area after graduation, Gonino will come back as a volunteer coach next season, and that many of the returning athletes will bring friends to tryouts as potential fall semester recruits.
"Word of mouth from team members is our biggest way of recruitment," Childress said, noting that he did receive plenty of interest from incoming freshmen visiting campus for College For A Weekend (CFAW) as well. "We need to recruit well to keep the team growing. As much as the team is about going out and competing, our goal always as a team is to build a sense of community. We really look forward to bringing people in and showing them how we do things, and we also welcome voices of experience as well as newcomers who have a desire to come out and give it a try."
