Sandpoint athletes fare well at jiu-jitsu tournament

HELENA, Mont. — Seven members of the Integrative/Grapplers Guild team from Sandpoint competed in a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournament in Helena, Mont. last weekend, posting some strong finishes and bringing home some hardware.

Mike McCray won the White Belt Gi division, and finished second in the Grappling (no gi) adult division, and Tyler Hammack finished first in the Youth Grappling division and third in the Gi division, where he competed against all higher level belts.

“It was a really big win for Mike, he had a stacked division,” said instructor Danny Clarke, who has essentially trained all of his students from scratch. “Tyler is my first student to take a gold home.”

Clarke, a former University of Viginia wrestler who plans to compete in jiu-jitsu at the Pan-American Games next spring, lost 3-2 in the finals of the Purple Belt Gi division. It marked the first time he’s faced an opponent he couldn’t shut down in a while.

“I was up the whole match and in the last 10 seconds I got reversed,” he explained. “I needed that competition, that drive to keep pushing. Competition makes you better.”

Chad Spade, a former state champion wrestler at Sandpoint and another of the new jiu-jitsu athletes in Sandpoint, finished second in both the White Belt Gi division and the Intermediate Level (no gi) division.

“Chad was so impressive,” said Clark. “He’s been training for a month, and was the lightest guy by 20 pounds. To take second against guys with more experience is really impressive.”

Others who competed but did not place: Grant Simmons (adult), Jacob DeLeon (kid) and Stryder Miller (kid).

For more, visit “www.theintegrativeathlete.com.”