MILDURA Martial Arts has placed fourth in the Grappling Industries event in Adelaide, coming home with 35 wins, five gold, three silver and two bronze.
In his first ever competition Connor Tierney put the 77kg white belt division on notice last weekend, winning 10 matches with eight submissions including a cross collar choke, two rear naked chokes, four anacondas and a bulldog choke.
In the white belt 97kg division Travis Gojak won five matches with two subs securing a rear naked choke and a standing guillotine.
At blue belt, after having no one to face in his division Hussain Ibrahimi stepped up 5kg and took home a gold and a silver.
Ibrahimi then competed in the absolute division against people who outweighed him by almost 40kg and finished third.
Meanwhile, in the Purple Belt division Lewis Florez juggled cornering and competing to come away with golds in both the gi and no gi.
His explosiveness and skillset were on full display as he put on some of the most entertaining matches of the day.
The club’s junior team was placed third overall with a range of first-time and veteran competitors playing their role.
Leading the charge for the juniors was Lachlan Mendoza, who won six matches, taking out double gold in the junior division before steppingd up into the adult division to face opponents 20kg heavier and being placed second.
Alex Englefield was placed first in the no gi and third in the gi and Conor O’Rielly took home two silvers, securing a guillotine and a rear naked choke.
Coach Mick Moloney praised the team for their efforts on the day.
“I was quite impressed that for such a small team we got such a high score,” Moloney said.
“If you look at us compared to other teams, some had twice as many competitors.
“If we had more people there we would’ve easily come in the top three.
“We were only pipped by seven points.
“We also had such a small kids’ team and they managed to come third overall.”
Moloney said they would now get back to training in preparation for the next event in Adelaide on January 28.
“We will be putting in hours on the mat, getting back to training,” he said.
“In some cases there were fundamental mistakes made that we could fix.
“We also have to get people more prepared for the competitive nature of what we are doing and the tactics involved.
“If we can double the numbers for the next comp we are in for a shot of winning it.”
