Midwest Championships 2009

Club Olympia traveled to Chicago March 21st to participate in the Midwest Championships for Judo held in Waukegan Illinois. The club had 13 Joduka in several divisions spanning all age groups - boys and girls. The most exciting division was the women's elite 135 pound division in which Club Olympia's own Sensei, Lynn Roethke, came out of semi-retirement to participate.

Lynn finished with a hard fought 2nd place after throwing 2 separate, quick Ippons and 3 full length matches against the second highest ranked woman in the country. The details of Lynn's Matches can be found on the US Judo Website Here.

The Club took four 1st place finishes earned by - Mitchell Raube

, Spencer Depies

, Mason Steffes

and Lauren De Smidt. 2nd place finishes were earned by Lynn Roethke, Hannah Wright

and Michael Buetow.

Four 3rd place trophies were taken by Hunter Kollmann, Cody Kollmann

, Grant Johnson and McKinnley Buetow. Other competitors were Kyle Handy

and Adam Ford. In total 37 matches were fought with 20 wins and 17 losses.

Video Taken By Ron Raube:

Pictures taken by Peter DeSmidt can be seen at:
www.peterdesmidt.com/blog