BERKELEY, Calif. – Sometimes, second place can be the greatest disappointment. Other times, however, it just means more.
For one magical weekend, Colorado taekwondo neared the very pinnacle of its martial arts.
From April 12-14, CU's taekwondo team competed in the 47th annual National Collegiate Taekwondo Championships. After hosting the event in Boulder last year, the Buffaloes performed historically, taking home second place finishes in both the Color Belt and Overall Team Division.
The NCTA event was its largest to date, with 715 athletes from 70 universities nationwide taking part. In each division, the black and gold fell just five points short of national champion Texas, though trailed the Longhorns by 40 athletes.
An impressive 28 of the 34 Buffs who competed in the Championships collected medals, racking up 35 total honors of gold (7), silver (14), and bronze (14) throughout the three-day event.
"This is 16 years in the making," said head coach David Lee. "Back then, we were a small club that didn’t compete at the national level. Now, we’re one of the biggest teams in the country known for taekwondo worldwide and standing tall on the biggest podium in collegiate taekwondo. It’s surreal, but then I think about all the years of work and all of the people who helped us get here, and I’m overcome with gratitude and humility."
Lee's journey for Colorado taekwondo started in 2008 as an athlete. Now, he oversees one of the premier collegiate martial arts programs in the country, ranked No. 5 heading into the runner-up result at nationals.
Headlining those with accolades was the Sparring Team, winning all seven of CU's gold medals along with nine silvers and 11 bronzes. Ian Lopez, 2023's NCTA Male Sparring Athlete of the Year, successfully defended his national title of the finweight class in his senior season. Additionally, both the Yellow Belt Female Middle/Heavyweight and Green Belt Female Light/Welterweight divisions were clean sweeps on the podium.
"Our energy was especially electric," noted third-year coach Ivan Pagan Maldonado. "It really shows the kind of culture the Buffs have and we’re excited to keep building."
Another benchmark was reached by Colorado's Poomsae Team in just its second year competing at the NCTA Championships. Freshman Jasper Shen nabbed silver for his excellence in this individual form of choreographed movement, earning the program its first-ever medal in the event.
The Buffaloes' incredible showing was rounded out by four silvers in USA University's Team Trials, two bronzes from the High School Team, and a third-place finish by the Demonstration Team. The Black Belt Sparring event ended in the favor of CU as well, with Lopez, junior Aly Ayers, and athlete/coach Kaliyah Saunders Boden earning gold, silver, and bronze respectively.
With a spectacular weekend of competition now behind them and the future as bright as ever for the Buffs, excitement is naturally abundant, but the squad is not satisfied. Colorado taekwondo appears hell-bent on turning more heads, racking up more hardware, and writing plenty more down in the history books.
"Everyone on this team is clamoring to run it back," mentioned coach Lee. "It seems we have unfinished business for next year."
Cover photo by Lane Epstein/University of Colorado Taekwondo
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