The University’s club wushu team had much to be proud about Sunday during its eight-hour drive home up Interstate 5 from the Bay Area.
Nine competitors won 10 total medals for the team Saturday at the 18th Annual Chinese Martial Arts Tournament at Cal’s Haas Pavilion in Berkeley, Calif. Considered the largest martial arts tournament in the country, it drew more than 500 competitors in three skill divisions. The tournament was open to all ages, not just to those at the collegiate level.
Freshmen Dana Macalanda, an Emerald designer, Paul Dargan and Eva Chu and senior Taylor Valle each won first-place medals for different events in the beginner division. Freshman Kenney Hersch won two second-place medals in the same division. Freshmen Kunica Kosugi and Michael Nelson won second- and third-place medals, respectively, to round out the Ducks’ success in the beginner division.
In the intermediate division, junior Mindy Nguyen and senior Katsumi Manabe each had third-place finishes in their respective gender’s straightsword event.
Even though the tournament featured group events, all members of the Oregon team
participated individually.
“It was really competitive and also really, really friendly,” senior Brandon Fleck said about the tournament atmosphere.
For some of the beginners on the team, the tournament marked only their second foray into competition. Valle, whose first-place medal came in men’s beginner staff, wasn’t too confident about his chances coming in.
“I thought I was going to get destroyed because I’ve only been doing staff for about a month and a half,” he said.
Valle took up the staff, a long wooden stick, in hopes of eventually using the spear. Learning staff movements is essential before moving up to the spear.
Valle was able to recover from a mid-performance mishap in which he forgot a move.
“I was just a lot more focused on my physical movements rather than on what I had to do next,” he said. “That’s just something that happens.”
With beginners, judges primarily look at strength in basic disciplines such as movements, stances and fluidity. Attention to detail and complexity increases with skill level.
Nguyen, in addition to women’s intermediate straightsword, also took part in women’s intermediate long fist. Her schedule had her rushing into straightsword immediately after long fist.
“I didn’t get to warm up as much,” she said. “It was really chaotic, but it was good fun.”
One Oregon competitor, senior Nathan Andrus-Hughes, participated in the advanced division, the highest grouping. He did not medal in the two events he performed in, men’s long fist and men’s spear.
Competing for the first time in that division of this tournament, Andrus-Hughes found himself matched up with some of the best in the world.
“It was a pretty intense feeling,” he said. “I’ve been doing wushu for about three and a half years. And the people I’m competing against have been doing it for 13-plus years.”
Andrus-Hughes, who plans to try out for the national wushu team in the next year, said his spear performance was the best he had ever done, but he felt his long fist performance could have been better.
“It doesn’t matter what place I get. It matters if I can do the best I can,” he said.
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