07/06/2026
We’re wrapping up our final day of competition with 2 National Champions 🥇🥇 and 1 National Runner-Up 🥈!
🥇 Ryan Feng – What an incredible week! Ryan dominated both AAU and USAT Nationals, winning 7 fights in the black belt division while giving up a combined total of just 4 points and 0 penalties across all seven matches. An unbelievable performance! 🤯
🥈 Zachary Tamanaha – Zach battled hard in a stacked -30kg Youth Black Belt division, coming up just short of gold. The growth he’s shown over the past year has been incredible. After being eliminated in the first round at the 2025 Nationals, he returned this year to earn a National silver medal. Zach is incredibly talented, works extremely hard, and we have no doubt he’ll accomplish great things in this sport.
🥇 Dean Manasse – Our tough 7-year-old made it look easy today! Dean has been one of the hardest-working athletes in our program since the day he started as a white belt. We can’t wait to watch him make a splash on the black belt circuit next year. 💪
A huge shoutout to Ashan Patel and Scottie Farfan! While both came up short of the podium today, we couldn’t be prouder of their performances. Ashan lost a hard-fought match to the eventual National Champion in the quarterfinals, and Scottie continues to gain valuable experience in his first season competing as a black belt. Both boys left everything on the mat, and that’s all we can ever ask for.
Our U21 Team Trials didn’t go the way we had hoped for Zhoe, Jayda, and Kenneth. Zhoe and Kenneth are both returning from long layoffs and are still finding their rhythm at the world-class level. Jayda, our 2025 National Team member, had an especially challenging week, dealing with equipment malfunctions and inconsistent scoring on the Gen 3 electronic system.
Not every tournament ends the way you want it to, but adversity is part of the journey. We’ll learn from this experience, keep improving, and come back even stronger.
Onward and upward. 🚀
