Providence, RI, November 3rd – The Eastern Collegiate Taekwondo Conference (ECTC) held its second tournament of the season at Brown University, a staple in the ECTC’s five-tournament lineup.

“It is an honor to host a league tournament each year,” said Sung Park, Brown University Head Coach and ECTC Board Member. “Thinking back to my first tournament over 30 years ago, I have such fond memories of attending these events. It’s incredible that the friends I made then are still part of my life and the league. Being in a position to give back, especially now that my own children are participating in collegiate Taekwondo, is truly special. I couldn’t ask for a better place for them to learn competitiveness and camaraderie as part of their college experience.”

This season, the ECTC joins the recently launched National Collegiate Taekwondo Association (NCTA) Regional Initiative, which is organizing six regional conferences across the United States. “This initiative creates more opportunities than ever for college students to grow as athletes and leaders,” said Chuang. “Participation in these regional conferences will qualify collegiate athletes for a new division at the NCTA Championships—the NCTA Team Championships. Teams will compete for the newly introduced traveling trophy, the NCTA Cup, which will reside with the winning school each year.”

Jennifer Li, President of the Brown Taekwondo Club, reflected on the event’s significance. “As a senior, it’s especially heartwarming to see the Brown tournament come together and even more rewarding to watch everyone enjoy it,” she said. “ECTC tournaments have a unique sense of familiarity—you meet people as a first-year competitor, and over the years, those connections grow stronger. It’s something I’ll always value about being part of this community.”

The tournament brought together 452 athletes from 21 schools, all competing for medals and team trophies. True to ECTC tradition, the event followed the 3v3 team format. Teams of up to three members from the same school faced off in single-elimination brackets for both Poomsae and Sparring.

In the Mixed-Gender Poomsae Divisions, athletes competed across three brackets:

  • A-Team (Black Belts): Northeastern A1 (Brian Meagher, Sam Walker, Sarah Rescsanski) took gold.
  • B-Team (Blue and Red Belts): MIT B1 (Grace Jau, Yuying Lin, Ricardo Carrillo) took gold.
  • C-Team (White, Yellow, and Green Belts): Northeastern C1 (Cameron Nguyen, Conrad Wu, Kinolee Kumarasinghe) took gold.

The Sparring Divisions included men’s and women’s teams at the A, B, and C levels:

  • Men’s A-Team: NYU A1 (Bryan Kwon, Jay Lin, Mitchell Toomey) claimed gold.
  • Women’s A-Team: West Point A1 (Grace Kim, Megan Cho, Yudam Jeong) took gold.
  • Men’s B-Team: Northeastern B1 (Alexander Lei, Steven Dong, Jan Heinz, Daniel Li (alternate)) earned gold.
  • Women’s B-Team: Cortland B1 (Alicea Cianfrogna, Adriane Bifolco) won gold.
  • Men’s C-Team: Brown C1 (Christopher Lee, Jacob Schmidman, Jerome Jacobs) captured gold.
  • Women’s C-Team: Liberty C1 (Katrina McMillen, Khara Pastean, Hannah Wharton) secured gold.

Overall team trophies were awarded based on results across all brackets:

  • Division 1: 1st – Northeastern, 2nd – MIT, 3rd – Cornell.
  • Division 2: 1st – NYU, 2nd – West Point, 3rd – Cortland.
  • Division 3: 1st – Liberty, 2nd – Ohio State, 3rd – Duke.

Full results are available on the ECTC website.

The next ECTC event will take place at Cornell University, where teams are eagerly preparing for another thrilling competition. With sights set on the coveted ECTC Cup, the season’s energy continues to build toward its exciting conclusion.