White Dragon Judo Club

The 8th Annual Gateway Invitational Judo Tournament got underway on October 6, 2018 at the Overland Community Center in Overland, Missouri. This tournament has attracted judokas from all over the Midwest region. Tournament director Sensei Derick Wellman put together another competitive event. 7th dan Randy Pierce was the head officiator for this tournament. David Burke was the head coach of Team White Dragon for the second consecutive year. Burke got the best out of Team White Dragon as all team members medaled in tournament. Caleb Bass had his work cut out for him in his tournament debut talented stacked division. Caleb made the best of his opportunity and scored a bronze medal. Sean Eagan showed exceptional improvement in his debut. He impressed his peers and coaches with a bronze medal finish in the boys heavyweight division. Trevor Judge collected a silver medal in his third Gateway Invitational. Alex Halon went 3-1 on the day and won a silver medal. Avery and Cameron Duffield showed their dominance for a second consecutive year. Big brother Cameron went undefeated and took another gold. The competition had no answer for Avery’s newaza. He earned a gold medal as well. In the senior division, Byron Helmrich took bronze in the lightweight division. Josh Sisson won silver in his category. Ryan Morrow went 3-2 on the day and won bronze. Adnan Gutic scored a splendid ippon with tomonage in the semifinal. He took a silver medal home for the day. Justin Campos had an impressive debut scoring a silver medal for the tournament. White Dragon Judo standout Phillip Vojta won his third consecutive Gateway Invitational gold. The MVP of the tournament was Joe Judge. He made the best of his debut with some impressive ippons in the Veterans middleweight division.