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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.

Evanston, IL, October 26 – The Midwest Collegiate Taekwondo Conference (MCTC) held its first annual Central Championships at Northwestern University this past weekend, where 104 collegiate athletes from seven schools competed in an unforgettable tournament. The event marked major firsts for MCTC, including the debut of 3v3 team formats, true bracketing, and Collegiate National qualifications. “This was a historic event where MCTC made firsts happen, including 3v3 [team poomsae and sparring], true bracketing, and Collegiate National qualifications,” said David Lee, MCTC League Director.

As part of the NCTA Regional Initiative, this tournament also served as a qualifier for the new NCTA Cup Division, to be held at the NCTA National Collegiate Championships in 2025. “Six regional conferences are being recognized and organized around the United States and will provide more opportunities than ever before for college students to compete and grow as athletes and leaders,” said Dan Chuang, President of the NCTA. “Participation in the regional conferences will qualify collegiate athletes for a new additional division at the NCTA Championships, the NCTA Team Championships. This division will see athletes competing to take home a traveling cup, the new NCTA Cup, which will reside with the winning Team Division school each year.”

All the athletes, from seasoned to first-time competitors, were beaming throughout the day. “This tournament is the first time many of my athletes have ever competed, and I am beyond impressed by the opportunity this tournament gave them,” said Humza Qazi, Head Coach at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). “[This tournament] was a great opportunity for everyone to come together and compete,” added Jon Price, Head Coach of Northwestern University. “I have athletes who are shy who have been really coming out of their shell today to cheer for one another. They’re all really excited for the next tournament.”

The competition exclusively featured a 3v3 team format, with teams of up to three members from the same school competing in single-elimination brackets in both Poomsae and Sparring. Mixed-Gender Poomsae Divisions included 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. Similarly, six Sparring Divisions were contested, with three each for men and women across A, B, and C teams. The 3v3 format was a resounding success and introduced a fresh dynamic to the Midwest athletes. 

“I really like the random 3v3 format for poomsae,” said Jason Dahlberg, athlete from UIUC and seasoned USATKD competitor. “It makes poomsae feel more like a sport instead of just a performance.” Miles Jackson, President of the Northwestern Sport Taekwondo Club, shared, “The 3v3 format really adds that team element to everything, and it makes you feel less alone.”

In the Poomsae Divisions, Ohio State University (OSU) PA1 (Manami Fukuda, Abby Schwarz, Jed Jung) took gold in the A Team Division, UIUC PB1 (Alice Lua, Angelina Yan, Edward Guo) won in the B Team Division, and Northwestern PC1 (Iris Hernandez, Jillian Tabak, Bianca Diaz) took first place in the C Team Division.

The Sparring Divisions saw OSU Men’s A1 (Shagnik Sarkar, Saketh Balakumar, Alex Papadopol) take gold in the Men’s A Team Division, while UIUC Women’s A1 (Ashley Chen, Rui Su) won the Women’s A Team Division. OSU Men’s B1 (Sirojiddin Aripov, Maxton Colby, Brayden Mikulski) took first in the Men’s B Team Division, and OSU Women’s B1 (Manami Fukuda, Sophia Weiss, Sara Sun) won in the Women’s B Team Division. In the C Team Division, University of Chicago Men’s C2 (Noah Michel, Anthony Chiu) claimed gold in the Men’s Division, while Northwestern Women’s C1 (Lacey Thompson, Jillian Tabak, Bianca Diaz) secured first place in the Women’s Division.

As the event concluded, overall team trophies were awarded based on cumulative results. OSU captured first place, Northwestern took second, and UIUC came in third. “The energy of the event was amazing,” David Lee said. “All of these different universities only had a few weeks to prepare, and they showed up to this event anyway. In the end, these athletes left with an experience of a lifetime that will propel them into purposeful training, recruiting, and pursuing of their club’s missions. I had so many athletes, coaches, and parents come up to me with gratitude and excitement for another event. We will have a third MCTC event sometime in the spring, and we’ll be accepting requests for bids at mctc.tkd@gmail.com.”

Photos from the event can be found here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Zt-AAY1SgjQ2InS17WOpxAhf3401FtrC