Black Belt of the Year Awarded
Kimberly Buehler, third degree black belt, was honored by the Stevens Taekwondo YMCA Academy as the Outstanding Black Belt of 2006 Sunday. Buehler, a CPA with Omernik and Associates Inc., has trained with Stevens YMCA Taekwondo Academy for more than eight years.
Buehler was nominated for the award by fellow black belts who cited her many contributions to the school in running demonstrations, assisting in teaching and her example of continuing fitness during her pregnancy. Buehler’s husband Justin, sister Karrie Lane, nephew Daniel Naipat and brother-in-law Jeff Lane are all black belts with Stevens Taekwondo Academy.
The annual award, a memodrial to black belt M. J. Attoe, who died in a 1994 car accident, was presented by Joyce Kavalauskas, Attoe’s mother.
December Testing Results
Eleven martial artists earned black belts Sunday at the YMCA.
Master Scott Lewandowski, Hartland, achieved sixth degree black belt level, performing the sipjin form, submitting a ten-page paper on taekwondo, giving a demonstration of teaching self-defense techniques and then shattering eight boards. Lewandowski whirled through six boards with successive spinning speed kicks and then broke two boards with a flying 360 side kick.
Attorney Joseph Martell, Ashland, earned his third degree black belt, performing a spinning hook speed break and the taebek form.
Elizabeth Wolosek joined her older sisters Stephanie and Morgan as a second degree black belt with her performance of pyongwon form, advanced sparring techniques and kick combinations and snapping a board with a spinning side kick.
Kyle Mealy, Teodoro Garcia and Morgan Carlton moved up to full first degree black belt on Sunday. They demonstrated advanced kick combinations and sparring and performed the koryo and four taegeuk forms before passing oral examination on the meaning and tenets of taekwondo. Eleven-year-old Morgan broke his board with a back spinning side kick. Garcia split his board with a jumping back spin crescent kick, while Mealy shattered his board with a spinning hook speed break.
Dan Majowski, Michelle Ormond, Ashley Bloch, John Vann and Gabriel Von Gompel entered the black belt ranks as deputy (bo dan) black belts. Following a rigorous demonstration of advanced kicking and sparring skills, they performed five taegeuk forms. Majowski used a back roll into a jumping side kick to break his board. Ormond split one board with a spinning axe kick and then a spin side kick on the second board. Bloch smashed her board with a roundhouse-back spinning hook combination. Combining hand and foot techniques, Von Gompel shattered one board with a inside crescent- spinning axe kick and another one with a speed ridge hand. Vann broke his board with a jumping back spinning side kick.
Fifty taekwondo students from the Stevens Takwondos Academy, the UW-Stevens Point taekwondo program and the UW-Platteville Taekwondo Club were tested for color belt promotion also. For performance excellence, red belt Mark Stenerson won the first place trophy, red belt Riley Held took second place and high green belt Robert Vater earned the third place trophy.
The belt promotion testing was judged by Grandmaster Dwight Stevens, Master Mark Henkel and Master Bill Dragolovich. More than 40 black belts assisted in the testing.
