Joey Payeur
Three years ago, Grace Petsnick fought the first bouts of her competitive judo career.
This past weekend, she fought—and won—the most important ones so far as maple leaf pride shone through on the American west coast on the Fourth of July weekend.
The 13-year-old Fort Frances resident put the Borderland Judo Club in the limelight when she captured the gold medal in the Female Juvenile A -64kg division at the 2016 United States Judo Federation/United States Judo Association Judo Summer National Championships in Irvine, California this past Sunday.
Petsnick went 3-1 in her five-fighter category to tie Erika Perez (Salinas Judo, Salinas, Ca.) and Tessa Fernandez of Judo America (San Diego).
It came down to a tiebreaker based on points—and it almost didn’t go Petsnick’s way, except for the eagle eye of Borderland Sensei Chuck MacDonald.
“The scorer’s table had the points wrong and had Grace in the silver medal position,” explained MacDonald.
“I brought it to their attention that Grace had won against the person (Perez) they had in the gold medal spot,” he continued.
“After a consultation by the officials, they decided that Grace had won the gold.”
Contacted in California before flying home yesterday, Petsnick was still grasping the massive achievement she had completed.
“I originally was going down just to get some experience—I’ve never been to a tournament that big,” beamed the champion about the two-day event which welcomed close to 1,500 fighters from not only the U.S. and Canada, but France, Tahiti and various parts of Central America and South America.
“I was nervous because all the fighters I had fought in the past were older or heavier than me, so I was going to finally get to face fighters of my own age and in my own weight class.”
It was a good thing Petsnick wasn’t getting paid by the hour.
The recent J.W. Walker School graduate won her first two bouts in 40 seconds and seven seconds, respectively, using a chokehold maneuver to force Perez to tap out and then planting and pinning Roslyn Mendez from Guerreros Judo (West Covina, Ca.) faster than any human being has ever run the 100m dash.
“I was really going for quick finishes because I know the more time I spend on the mat, the more tired I get and I knew I had more fights coming up,” noted Petsnick.
Fernandez then hung Petsnick’s only loss on her in a match that was back-and-forth, with Fernandez winning by a mere half a point.
With everything on the line, Petsnick charged out of the box in her final scrap against Sonia Kaminsky from Tri-Valley Judo (Pleasanton, Ca.) and again slapped an ironclad chokehold on her opponent to bring about another tapout just 37 seconds in.
“Grace hasn’t used submission holds in competition up until now,” marvelled MacDonald.
“But from her first fight, I could tell obviously it was working for her, so I wasn’t going to change the game plan,” he added.
“Submission holds are not her strong suit, so we held her back from using it until she needed it.”
When the podium outcome was finally determined, Petsnick was thrilled beyond even her own imagination.
“This is absolutely special to come from Canada and win this,” she declared.
“After I won, when one girl came up and asked where I came from and I told her, she was pretty surprised.”
Petsnick, who is off to Huntsville in two weeks for a three-week sports camp that will consist of one week each of judo, basketball and volleyball, had plenty of glowing tributes for her Borderland instructors.
“Sensei Chuck, Julie Beaudry, Randy Ball and Gord Witherspoon were constantly working with me to perfect all the different drills and prepare for the tournaments,” she lauded.
“I owe a lot to them..Chuck told me before I fought each fight this weekend how to keep my focus on the mat and not let anything get in my head and just go out and do what I came here for.”
Borderland’s most accomplished judoka said there was no overstating Petsnick’s accomplishment.
“This is huge for our club,” said MacDonald.
“It’s rare to get someone to even place in a national tournament,” he emphasized.
“To have someone come away with gold after just three years of competitive judo is really unusual.
“Grace has caught on quick. She works really hard and hardly ever misses a practice and if she does, it’s because she’s sick or has another sport obligation,” stated MacDonald.
“She’s fought well in every division we have put her in, even when the category was skewed not in her favour. There’s no quit in her.”
Borderland was also represented by three other Fort fighters, none of whom won any of their two bouts, but who all gave a solid effort.
Morgan Good in the 11-member Male Juvenile A -44kg class gave Harut Petrosyan of Kenam’s Fighting Club (Glendale, Ca.) a titanic tussle in his opener.
“(Good) hung in for over two minutes with (Petrosyan), who is a brown belt,” praised MacDonald about Good going toe-to-toe with a fighter three belt levels higher.
In his second fight, Good’s unidentified blue-belt opponent (two levels higher) benefitted from an untimely penalty taken by Good in the latter stages of the fight that cost the local judoka the match.
Borderland’s Mia Woolsey had an even larger contingent of martial artists to contend with, as she was one of 18 participants in the Female Intermediate A -30kg category.
“Mia did really well in both her fights—neither one ended quickly,” reviewed MacDonald about Woolsey’s battles with Keira Halsey from San Shi Judo (Vista, Ca.) and an unidentified second opponent.
“It’s good experience for her to get out there and see the calibre of judo that is out there,” he added.
“This kind of exposure to her at such a young age will help her do well in future tournaments.”
MacDonald’s son, Bennet MacDonald, also dropped both his fights in the Male Intermediate A -34kg class, whose 21 members made up the largest category at the tournament.
The young judoka pushed Elias Navida from San Shi to the limit before Navida threw Bennet for a full point and the win.
In Bennet’s second match against an unidentified fighter, the Fort scrapper got himself tied up in a series of rollover moves and eventually tapped out.
“It was the right thing to do,” defended his Sensei and father Chuck, who is already geared up for the start of the new judo season this fall.
“We’re going to go to more and more tournaments at higher levels and keep progressing,” he promised.
“This was our first major tournament and I think we did quite well. As the kids get more experience, we will see more success.”
