The Cellar Gym’s Checkmat Minneapolis BJJ team brought an amazing game to the 2015 Submission

The Cellar Gym’s Checkmat MinneapolisBJJ team brought an amazing game to the 2015 Submission Hunt Championships! In total, the Cellar brought home six Gold, six Silver, and four Bronze medals. Our highlights and wins:

• Michelle Donovan worked hard to healthfully cut over 15 pounds in order to compete in the 120-135 division, where she showed a beautifully impressive performance of technique and calculated aggression. She tied for 1st (with teammate Kaitlin Youwer) in her gi white belt division, took 3rd in the gi blue belt division, and 2nd in the gi white belt open weight division, losing only to a very strong and much heavier opponent. Go Michelle! :)
  
• Kaitlin Youwer, despite being relatively new to BJJ, rocked the mats with a dominant display. She took 1st in her no-gi division, 3rd in no-gi open division, 1st in the gi blue belt division (!), and tied for 1st in the gi white belt division with Michelle.
  
• Evie Enderle took 2nd in her gi white belt division, giving an exceptionally strong and aggressive opponent a spectacular run for her money. Way to represent, Evie!
• Shuyeng Vang took 1st in his gi white belt division and 2nd in his no-gi division.
• Kevin Skadsheim took 1st in his gi blue belt division.
• Damon Leahy took 1st in his gi white belt division and 2nd in his no-gi division. 
• Scott Masterton took 3rd in his gi purple belt division.
• Pete Donlin took 3rd in his gi blue belt division.

Big congratulations to everyone! It was a great time seeing my teammates kick ass so hard - looking forward to healing up all the way so I can compete this spring. Thank you to coaches Mayko Araujo and Karen Antunes for running such an amazing team and for encouraging us to work harder every day!