Team SRJJA Photos from 2007 Arnold's

Thanks to photo contributers Chris Blanke, Evan Sarnacki and NAGA.

Xande, Randy and Chris Blanke.

Xande, Chris Blanke and Rico Chipparelli.

Team Saulo Takes 1st in Gi & 2nd Overall at Arnold's!

NAGA posted the results of the 2007 Arnold Classic this morning. The overall team winner was Team Jorge Gurgel with 3620 points, followed by Team Saulo Ribeiro in 2nd place with 3110 points and Team Rodrigo Vaghi with 2670 points. Congratulations to Team Gurgel on your victory.

By division, Team Saulo Ribeiro won the Gi competion with 1850 points, with 2nd place being Team Jorge Gurgel with 1670 points and Team Rodrigo Vaghi coming in at 3rd place with 1180 points. The No-gi competition was won by Team Jorge Gurgel (1340 pts.), 2nd place Team Rodrigo Vaghi (1120 pts.) and Team USA MA in 3rd place (700 pts.). Team Saulo Ribeiro finished the No-gi competition in 5th place with 520 points. There were also a Kids & Teens divisions that finished up with Team Saulo Ribeiro in 1st place (740 pts.), Team Jorge Gurgel in 2nd (610 pts.) and Team Kruse Academy in 3rd (480 pts.).

Congratulations to all of the winning Teams and Medalists, and all of the competitors who came out to help make this a great tournament.

Below is a medal break down for all of my Team Saulo Ribeiro team mates and others that may be interested. As soon as some more pics come in, I will post them.

Team Saulo Ribeiro Medal Break Down:

Gi Division

Gold Medalists (15):

Jeremy Harris (Brown Belt)

Matt Jubera (Brown Belt)

Ben Eaton (Purple Belt)

Scott Oates (Purple Belt)

John Walus (Purple Belt)

Dan Agemy (Purple Belt)

John Toth (Purple Belt)

Matt Lewis (White Belt)

Valentin Valdez (White Belt)

Bridget Toth (White Belt)

Rodney Partidge (? Belt)

George Payton (Teen Intermediate)

Cody Matern (Kids Intermediate)

Jeri Wethli (Kids Advanced)

Chris Stokes (Kids Intermediate)

Silver Medalists (9):

Sean Bansfield (Black Belt)

Jason Clarke (Purple Belt)

Jessica Goetz (Blue Belt)

Stephen Tondu (White Belt)

Kevin Wechter (? Belt)

A.R. Bansfield (Teen Intermediate)

Sean Thomas (Teen Beginner)

Kahleigh Neroni (Teen Beginner)

Kyle Matern (Kids Beginner)

Bronze Medalists (4):

Jeremy Harris (Brown Belt)

Kathleen Rozzi (Purple Belt)

Seth Smith (Purple Belt)

Jarrod Serre (White Belt)

No-gi Division

Gold Medalists (6):

Ben Eaton (Advanced)

Justin Wehr (Intermediate)

Tim Maleo (Beginner)

George Payton (Teen Intermediate)

Cody Matern (Kids Intermediate)

Jeri Wethli (Kids Intermediate)

Silver Medalists (5):

Jeremy Harris (Advanced)

Mike Melki (Intermediate)

Kahleigh Neroni (Teen Beginner)

Kyle Matern (Kids Beginner)

Chris Stokes (Kids Intermediate)

Bronze Medalists (3):

Micky Sage (Intermediate)

Jarrod Serre (Beginner)

A.R. Bansfield (Teen Advanced)

NAGA/Arnold's 2007 Re-cap (with video)

This year's Arnold's in Columbus, OH were by far and away the fastest and most well run Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournament that I have ever been to. The tourny as whole ran at a remarkable speed with the coordination of Kipp, the announcers, the refs, the table officials and photographers running like a well oiled machine.

Unfortunately for me (and many others), the tournament ran perhaps a bit too fast. Following the guidance of Kipp Collar's post on the MMA.tv BJJ forums about the timeline of events (posted on this blog here), I nearly missed my first match. I woke up Saturday morning fully expecting to step on the mat around noon or so. I actually didn't doubt Kipp, and I believed him and his timeline. I was not arriving on "Brazilian Time" for my matches (which is typically 1hr or more later than U.S. times). Nope, I figured that showing up around 10:00 A.M. would give me plenty of time to get changed, tape up my broken parts and warm up. But Kipp, and the tourny were moving much faster than many of us expected. They apparently had the rules meeting at 8:30 A.M. (according to the timeline) but, I didn't go to it because it was stated that the tourny rules for the gi event were in accordance with the rules set forth by the CBJJ. As I know these rules, I, and many of the competitors opted to skip the rules meeting. In retrospect, we should've attended this meeting.

Within 15 minutes of walking in to the venue, I heard my name called to Ring #8. This means that the tourny was running about 1 hr and 45 min ahead of schedule at this time. I wasn't even suited up yet as I had been running around talking to team mates and friends that I haven't seen in a while. The same stuff we all do when we walk into a packed tournament - get your bearings, find a place to dump your gear, etc. After hearing "Last call for Jason Clarke at ring number eight," I dumped my bag out, grabbed my shorts and gi pants, and ducked behind the bleachers to strip down and change as fast as I could. My friend Matt went to the table to tell them that I would be right over. I came out from behind the bleachers, tossed on the rest of my uniform and stepped on the mat. It actually wasn't that fast. I had exactly 1 minute before my match started, so I tried my best to stretch and move my body parts to warm up. I have to admit, not being able to warm up beforehand played with my mind, especially as I was fighting with a recovering back injury that leaves me stiff and sore. But, this is my fault for a couple of reasons: First of all, I made the decision to compete in my injured condition. Not that there's anything wrong in doing this, but I should've allowed more time than normal to warm up before my matches by showing up earlier. Secondly, I should've been a "good boy" and shown up when the event was scheduled to start in order to be ready for my matches.

Overall, I think that this year's Arnold's run by Kipp and NAGA were the best version of this event so far, and I'll most likely be making the drive down again next year.

Below is a portion of my match versus my team mate, Ben, from Genesis BJJ. There was a camera malfunction and the first few minutes of the match are missing. The clip picks up after a restart from us rolling out of bounds. Ben catches me with a nice deep half guard sweep and was close to a submission when time ran out. He beat me by 2 or 3 points (I think, maybe more?).