The Family Sportsplex in Belleville, Illinoiswas the site of the 28th Annual North/South Open Judo Tournament. Once again, Team South fell short of winning the North/South team tournament trophy. Anthony Darevsky, Dan Raney and standout judoka Davor Vasiljevic were all selected to Team South but were unable push the rival North squad from the top spot. Derick Wellman and Tom Kuhne took over the coaching reigns for this tournament. The standout coaches witnessed some vast improvement from most of Team White Dragon. Anthony Darevsky anchored the junior squad with a second place finish. Brother and sister, Shawn and Jocelyn Butler both went 3-1 on the day and took silver. Devin Busch showed off an improved ogoshi on his way to a bronze medal finish. Jordan Ashen had to make a few adjustments after a narrow first round loss. He rallied late in his second match with a pin for the win. Times got rough for the rookie in his last two matches but Ashen kept his poise and took third in his division. Julia Greene made her presence known with a second place showing.
In the senior divisions, John Jones and Eugene Hamilton took bronze in their weight classes. Anna Feygina narrowly loss the gold medal match in her weight division and had to settle for silver. Davor Vasiljevic made his Team White Dragon debut. The smooth flowing judoka flaunted some nice foot sweeps in a tough -100KG division and took third. Dan Dillon was the suprise of the tournament. Dillon threw his opponent with a beautiful sasae tsuri komi ashi in his first match and an exceptional harai goshi to the corner in his gold medal match. Dillon remains humble and eager to improve at -81KG.
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