SPRINGFIELD, Ill., - The best fighters in the Army National Guard Combatives Championship were crowned at Fort Benning, Ga., March 26-28, and the Illinois Guard's team took first place.
"Team Illinois was extremely excited to gain this win for the state," said Staff Sgt. Nicholas Grant, a team member. "The entire team worked very hard dedicating hundreds of hours of their time to prepare. We fought tough and proved once again that Illinois has the very best combatives program in the National Guard."
About 100 Soldiers from 27 states participated in the tournament. Capt. Brian Deaton, the commander of the ARNG Warrior Training Center, said it was their largest field ever.
The third annual tournament was open to all National Guard Soldiers regardless of combative experience. It was a modified double elimination and consisted of three separate rounds of fights.
The first round was Standard Rules, which consisted strictly of ground fighting techniques. The second round was Intermediate Rules, which also allowed open hand strikes to the head, punches to the body, and knee strikes & kicks. The finals were Advanced Rules, which allowed full contact; ground fighting, punches, kicks, and knee strikes.
Fighters competed individually in brackets based on weight class, and team points were awarded based on individual placement.
"The tournament is not a qualifier for the All Army, but it helps our ARNG Soldiers prepare for the Army tournament," Deaton said adding that Soldiers do not have to fight in this tournament to be eligible for the Army tournament.
The Illinois team members were: Sgt. Adam Therriault second place for the welterweight class (155 pounds and below); Staff Sgt. Nicholas Grant, third place for the middleweight class (170 pounds and below); Sgt. Neil Magny, third place for the cruiserweight class (185 pounds and below); Sgt. Jeremy Stimac, fourth place for the light heavyweight class (205 pounds and below); and Sgt. 1st Class John Shaw, fourth place for the heavyweight class (206 pounds and above).
Guard officials the objectives of the competition are to motivate individual Soldiers to train their warrior tasks and drills, react to man to man contact, improve real-world timing and match their skills against the greatest fighters in the National Guard.
Team Illinois won the first All Guard tournament in 2008 but, due to deployments last year, they were unable to take a substantial team.
"Coming back strong this year was our goal and we overwhelmingly succeeded," Grant said. "We appreciate all the support we received from our chain of command."
Below are the full results of the combatives tournament by class:
Classes
Flyweight - Male 125 lbs. & under, Female 131 & under Lightweight - (M) 140 lbs. & under, (F) 147 & under Welterweight - (M) 155 lbs. & under, (F) 163 & under Middleweight - (M) 170 lbs. & under, (F) 179 & under Cruiserweight - (M) 185 lbs. & under, (F) 194 & under Light Heavyweight - (M) 205 lbs. & under, (F) 215 & under Heavyweight - (M) 205 lbs. & up, (F) 215 lbs. & up
Class
Flyweight SFC Taniguchi, Ryan RK (HI) (Male) First Flyweight SPC Helsper, Elisha L (ID) (Female) Second Flyweight SPC Schommer, Jacob L (MN) (Male) Third Flyweight CDT Gottke, Kenneth N (OH) (Male) Fourth
Lightweight SSG Stemmler, Matthew C (VA) (Male) First Lightweight SSG Gottke, Justin E (OH) (Male) Second Lightweight SPC Cabral-Garibay, E (MN) (Male) Third Lightweight SSG Baez Rivera, Ernesto (GA) (Male) Fourth
Welterweight SSG Earley, Robert D (ID) (Male) First Welterweight SGT Therriault, Adam M. (IL) (Male) Second Welterweight MAJ Roberts, Dean B (MT) (Male) Third Welterweight SGT Fridgen, Joshua (MN) (Male) Fourth
Middleweight CPT Eitenmiller, Joachim (MN) (Male) First Middleweight MAJ Robinson, Curtiss H (SC) (Male) Second Middleweight SSG Grant, Nicholas B (IL) (Male) Third Middleweight SSG Cordeiro, Jeffrey (MA) (Male) Fourth
Cruiserweight SSG Elliott, Steven A (CA) (Male) First Cruiserweight SFC Chroninger, Ryan A (ID) (Male) Second Cruiserweight SGT Magny, Aoutneil J (IL) (Male) Third Cruiserweight SGT Bubenzer, Walter L (KY) (Male) Fourth
Lt Heavyweight 2LT Hern, Brandon P (OR) (Male) First Lt Heavyweight SSG Wagoner, Phillip (RI) (Male) Second Lt Heavyweight SSG Torrez, Jacob (WA) (Male) Third Lt Heavyweight SGT Stimac, Jeremy (IL) (Male) Fourth
Heavyweight SSG Christenson, Jeremy (AK) (Male) First Heavyweight SGT Main, Gregory (AZ) (Male) Second Heavyweight SGT Behrens, Andres F (AZ) (Male) Third Heavyweight SSG Shaw, John F (IL) (Male) Fourth
Team Results (Total Bout Points)
Illinoi (171) First
Arizona (117) Second
Idaho (117) Second
Minn (110) Third
The All Armed Forces Pankration tournament is scheduled for May 15 at Camp Pendleton, Calif., and the All Army Combatives Championship will be held in August at Fort Benning.