SHREVEPORT, La. — Team Wisconsin won the United Tae Kwon Do Alliance Grand Nationals Tournament July 28 thanks in part of four Monroe competitors. Master Aric Barnard, Joe Hughes, Bishop Yoder and Sam Nicholson of ELITE Tae Kwon Do of Monroe, along with Jeffrey Apsenson of Boscobel, topped Texas 32-25 in the championship.
Master Raymond Saint, chief instructor out of Boscobel was charged with putting together a men’s competition fighting team to compete against teams from other regions throughout the country at the Grand Nationals. Saint tasked Barnard, the chief instructor of ELITE, with the training and strategy leading up to the tournament.
“Our team had been training hard for several months leading up to the tournament, and I truly felt that we had a solid strategy to implement against the other state’s teams,” Barnard said. “I truly believed that we had a chance to win this thing if we stuck to our game plan.”
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Over 500 competitors were in attendance for the final battles of black belts. After Hughes and Yoder, Team Wisconsin’s first two fighters, ended their matches, and four rounds, Wisconsin trailed by four points. Nicholson, fighting third, scored three points and Aspenson, the fourth fighter for Wisconsin, lost two points.
“We were actually feeling pretty good about this, as we were close enough to come back and take the match,” Barnard said.
Trailing by three going into the final round, Barnard was Wisconsin’s last fighter in the two two-minute rounds. Barnard scored seven points in the ninth round to give himself and his team a four-point lead. Barnard kept his composure and won the final round by three points.
“I could not be more proud of our fighters, as we truly used the entire team to accomplish this,” Barnard said.
