Young Stars “Flex” their skills in Jersey as Team Lloyd Irvin’s Kids Capture their 5th Grapplers Quest Title!!!

Malachi, Ti-jean, Ryan, Cedric, and Donques have some fun in the sun before the Tournament crunch.  

October 15th was business as usual for the hardest working youth team in the country.  Well maybe not the hardest working Grapplers, but definately the hardest working martial artists.  Of the 22 Competitors that Master Lloyd Irvin sent to New Jersey last weekend, 20 of will recieve scholastic honors this grading period and the other 2 are teetering on same line of success.  Even more excited about the academic endeavors of our young students, the results of this weeks tournaments was just the icing on the cake.  

The beginners showed some true grit with a great overall performance.  Great effort was shown by all competitors with exceptional performances were turned in by some of Master Donnie’s band of “Private Lesson Bandits.”  Moises Maittre found a way to defeat a much older and experienced competitor to pave his way to a well deserved silver and bronze medal.  Noah Konohia’s new attack series made its’ debut with much success as he tapped out opponents on his way the the silver medal.  Gold Medal performances were turned in by beginners Makel Abdullah, Jabbar Hussie, Jacob Williams (Mike Fowler), Ivana Washington and Kobe Adolph.  Marquis Whitlow and Elijah Self also were able to close out their own division securing a gold medal for each of them.  Talking about beating the curve. 

Talk to Master Donnie immediately if you are interested in joining this elite crew of grapplers.

It was the same old story in the Advanced Division.  Carlo Levell DOMINATED the 60 pounders with a fantastic display of submission grappling and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu.  2 Gold Medals for him.  Taking both Gold Medals in the 70′s was Lloyd Irvin’s Wrecking Machine, Ti-Jean Awad who simply powered through all of his opponents with his ferocious takedowns and physical style of BJJ.  He was backed up by team standout Ross Olexa who captured the Silver and Bronze in the weight class behind Ti-jean. 

The 80 – 95 lb division contained our strongest pool of talent with Cory Walker, Krystal Allen and Cedric Bryant.  Cory captured both Golds with Cedric capturing a silver and Krystal a bronze.  Cory Walker continues to impress with his flawless style of Jiu-jitsu with a perfect blend of technique, speed, and strategy.  He looks to be unstoppable for the rest of 2006. 

The 95 – 110 placed two of our newest Advanced competitors and multiple champion Angelo Claiborne to try to close out the division, but unfortunately a young physical grappler from Alberto Crane Jiu-jitsu had other plans.  With our own Jasmine Marable and Aarae Alexander forced to eliminate one or the other from the bracket, and Angelo getting knocked out on the other side, it left young Aarae Alexander to challenge for the title.  And that she did, as she forced both of her finals matches into overtime finishing with the silver in both instances.  Also we mush mention Cedric Bryant’s courage as he was mistakenly placed into the heavier division to face the Crane competitor only to lose by advantage. 

What about Ryan Villogram???

Well turning 14 in September placed Ryan into the Teens catagory.  In a division that will google about 100 titles between them, Ryan was in a bracket with Michael Trasso (Ryan’s older brother’s old nemesis), Gianni Grippo, and Keegan Byers.  Needless to say, lots were matside to see Ryan’s debut in the teens.  He did not dissappoint.  His first match was finished in less then 2 minutes by traingle choke to armbar.  His second match pitted him against Michael Trasso, whom many consider the best teen in the weight class.  He ended up finishing Ryan via side mate leon, but the day wasn’t over.  Ryan came back to finish Keegan Byers for third place.  The gi division was next.  First up was Gianni Grippo.  Gianni just flipped the tournament on it’s ear by pulling of a fantastic 4 – 3 upset over Mike Trasso to capture the gold in the No-Gi category and Ryan new that he would be on fire.  The match began with Ryan pulling guard and Gianni sitting back on the leg to attemt an ankle lock.  Ryan quickly came up and fought his way to Gianni’s half guard to secure the sweep.  Gianni fought hard and composed his full closed guard as Ryan patiently worked to his guard opening position.  After about a minute, Ryan found a way to open Gianni’s guard and finished the match with a guard pass to win 5 – 0.  Thanks to Gianni’s performance against Trasso, Ryan found a new confidence and was determined to get his hands on a gold medal.  Ryan started of demonstrating the famous Lloyd Irvin gripping system before deciding to pull guard.  Here they sat for about 2 minutes before Mike opened Ryan’s guard and began his sick guard passing pressure.  Ryan was left with no choice but to bail out to prevent the pass points, costing him an  advantage.  Back on the feet Ryan began his relentless gripping to try to take Mike down but was unable to do so.  The match ended with Mike Trasso winning by advantage and capturing the gold with Ryan taking silver and Gianni getting Bronze.  These three competitors closed out both divisions…nuff said about that. 

Teen Standout and now veteran was Steven Brown who used this tournament to work out a lot of the bugs that have hindered him in the past.  He captured the silver medal in the gi division while losing in the finals by one advangtage.  More impressive than his wins though, was his display of the new techniques that he has been working on in the gym.  Nothing is more fulfilling than making new techniques work at a tournament and Steven did just that.  Watch out! 

Also competing in the teens, was Keona Williams.  Keona had an impressive performance as she continues to shake the rust after a 1 and 1/2 year layoff.