12th Annual "Sensei Memorial Invitational Judo Tournament
San Jose, CA Sunday February 8, 2004
The first "E" level tournament of the year, the tournament attracts senior players from throughout the nation. A Gold or Silver performance, by a U.S. citizen will earn one point or one-half point on the National Roster respectively.
The Mojica Judo members competing for national points were:
Efren Maldonado, Tyrone Mendez, Vitaly Vanyan, Water Mendez and Yvonne Carrera.
Vitaly & Yvonne each brought home Gold with 4 wins 0 losses. Vitaly's four wins were by Ippon, while Yvonne had three Ippons and one win by Yuko.
Efren Madonado, Tyrone & Walter Mendez skipped the brown belt division to get experience against more seasoned players. After losing his first match, Efren came back with two wins, but had to withdraw from competition after breaking two toes. With eight seconds left in Golden Score, Tyrone lost his first match by a yuko, but never looked tired during the marathon match. While Walter, fought well and never gave up.
Proving that his recent submission for Shodan was not a mistake, brown belt, Joshua Rodriguez, went thru his competition with ease, winning all four matches by Ippon.
OUR JUNIOR PLAYERS ALSO DID WELL. Bringing home gold were:
Anthony Vasquez-4 Wins 0 Losses: Showed that his time spent as Vitaly's Uki is paying off.
Paula Duarte-3 Wins 1 Loss: Experience and agrressiveness are two important keys to success, but refs don't always see everything.
Rodrigo Vega-4 Wins 0 Losses: In his first out of town compeitition, Rodrigo looked like he was at home at The Esther Snyder Community Cneter
Samantha Ortiz-3 Wins 1 Loss: She was on, but made a rookie mistake in her last match, that luckily didn't cost her the gold.
Bringing home Bronze: Amelia Castillo-3 Wins 1 Loss: A little rusty after two months rest, she vowed to come back, and we know she will.
Other Mojica Players on hand: Elvis Arce, Melissa Ortiz, Tomas Castillo. Mojica Judo came home with a total of seven golds and one bronze.