Abhi Routray

Cambridge, MA, October 20 – The Eastern Collegiate Taekwondo Conference (ECTC) successfully kicked off its season with an exciting tournament hosted at MIT this past weekend. This year marks a significant milestone as the 20th anniversary of MIT’s Sport Taekwondo Club hosting an official ECTC tournament, and the 41st year of ECTC league competition. “The team competition format that has made the league special from its inception is still going strong, providing positive, life-changing experiences for collegiate athletes year after year,” said Dan Chuang, Head Coach of the MIT Sport Taekwondo Club, ECTC Director, and NCTA President. “I’m eager to elevate this format to the national level for the first time at the 2025 NCTA Championships in the new NCTA Cup division.”

The ECTC is now part of the recently launched National Collegiate Taekwondo Association (NCTA) Regional Initiative. “Six regional conferences are being formally recognized and organized across the United States, creating more opportunities than ever for college students to compete and 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—where teams will compete for the newly introduced traveling trophy, the NCTA Cup, which will reside with the winning school each year.”

The energy was high throughout the day as 563 athletes from 24 schools gave their all to bring home medals and team trophies. “The athletes, coaches, and volunteers were full of excitement, enthusiasm, and camaraderie,” said Rae Drach, ECTC Tournament Committee Co-Chair. “It was wonderful to see teams cheering on their competitors and returning athletes reconnecting after months off during the off-season.”

The MIT Tournament followed ECTC’s traditional 3v3 team format, where teams of up to three members from the same school compete against one another in a single-elimination bracket for both Poomsae and Sparring. Three Mixed-Gender Poomsae Divisions were contested: an A-Team bracket for Black Belts, a B-Team bracket for Blue and Red Belts, and a C-Team bracket for White, Yellow, and Green Belts. Additionally, six Sparring Divisions—three for men and three for women—featured teams from the A, B, and C levels. Athletes earned 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in each of the nine brackets.

“It was nice to get back into it,” said 2022-2023 ECTC MVP Abhishek Narang from Northeastern. “I’ve competed nationally, but the camaraderie of the team format pushes you harder because you’re not just fighting for yourself—you’re fighting for your team.”

The competition ran deep in all nine brackets, with 60 teams competing in the A and C Poomsae Divisions, and all Sparring Divisions starting with a Round of 32 bracket. The Men’s A and C Team brackets were particularly intense, beginning in a Round of 64. As a result, teams had to battle through several hard-fought matches to reach the medal rounds.

In the Poomsae Divisions, UPenn A1 (Ryan Real, James Santos, Chloe Ng) secured 1st place in the A-Team Division, Northeastern B1 (Alexander Lai, Jenny Tran, Victoria Mung) took 1st place in the B-Team Division, and Yale C1 (Annli Zhu, Camila Otero, Zaneta Otoo) captured 1st place in the C-Team Division.

In the Sparring Divisions, Northeastern A1 (Immanuel Ampomah Mensah, Abhishek Narang, Ayush Zenith, Alternate Nathaniel Chung) won gold in the Men’s A-Team Division. In the Women’s A-Team Division, West Point A1 (Grace Kim, Megan Cho, Micaela Choi) and Northeastern A1 (Taylor McMordie, Nicole Chen, Rachel Zhang, alternate Samantha Panarese) tied for 1st place. In the Men’s B-Team Division, MIT B1 (Ricardo Carrillo, Jeryl Lewis, William Nolan) took gold, while Cornell B1 (Jenna Kafrawi, Audrey Kohlman, Jhanique Berridge) claimed gold in the Women’s B-Team Division. Finally, in the C-Team Division, Brown University C1 (Christopher Lee, Jacob Schmidman, Jerome Jacobs) earned gold in the Men’s Division, while Northeastern C1 (Maia Delagneau, Helen Wang, Ella Green) won gold in the Women’s Division.

At the conclusion of the event, overall team trophies were awarded based on results across all brackets. In Division 1, Northeastern took 1st place, MIT took 2nd place, and Cornell took 3rd place. In Division 2, University of Pennsylvania claimed 1st place, West Point secured 2nd place, and the University of Michigan took 3rd place. Finally, in Division 3, Yale finished 1st, the University of Connecticut came in 2nd, and Boston University placed 3rd. Full results from the tournament can be found on the ECTC website.

The next ECTC event will take place at Brown University on Saturday, November 2. Teams are eagerly anticipating another exciting competition as they set their sights on the coveted ECTC Cup, which will be awarded at the end of the season. Photos from the event can be found at this link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1noRE9wYv6uQMMVPDe__ZZChvJHr63RfH