Samuel and Kathryn Lohnes of Kee's Tae Kwon Do (TKD) in Yorkton were among the Black Belt MVPs Saturday afternoon following their performances at the 13th Annual Prairie Wildfire TKD Challenge.
Samuel finished in the junior male category and Kathryn topped the junior female category.
Out-of-town winners from the Invitational meet saw Tyler Mousseau of Thunder Bay top the adult male division while Alisha Triff won the adult female division.
In sparring, Alyssa Kunkel placed third, behind Kathryn Lohnes in the junior female black belt competition. Devin Frounfelter and Eric Fookes finished second and third respectively in junior B black belt light. Shane Varjassy finished first in junior A black belt light, Clark Bazin finished second in adult black belt middle, Francis Bazin finished second in adult black belt welter, Kallie Buenneke finished first in pee wee beginner light, Trinity Lawrence finished second in midget girls beginner light, Shaylene Froese finished third in midget girls advance light.
Jaxon Boyda and Daniel Rodem placed second and third respectively in pee wee male beginner light. Trystin Sulatyski placed third in pee wee male beginner middle.
Sven Crane placed first in junior male beginner heavy. Lukas Hoeber finished second in mighty mite beginner light. Seth Cherry finished first in midget male intermediate heavy.
Justin Fookes finished second in pee wee intermediate light.
Joseph Sliva finished first in junior male intermediate heavy.
Kyle Schmidt finished first in pee wee male advanced heavy. Zane Chopik finished first in pee wee advance light. Liam Cherry finished first in midget male advance heavy and Tyler Buenneke and Rylan Bahrey placed first and third respectively in junior male advance light.
In the patterns division, Eric Fookes placed third in junior B male black belt. Lukas Hoeber placed second in pee wee male basic. Kallie Buenneke finished second in pee wee female taegeuk I. Jenna Porte finished in second in midget female taegeuk I. Jaxon Boyda finished third in pee wee male taegeuk I. Daniel Roden and Trystin Sulatyski placed in third in midget male taegeuk I. Sven Crane came in third in junior B male beginner. Eric Crane placed first in junior A male beginner. Joseph Sliva placed third in midget male taeguek III. Justin Fookes placed third in midget male taegeuk IV. Shalysa Brown finished first in midget female intermediate
Tyler Buenneke and Zane Chopik came in first and second respectively in pee wee male taegeuk VI.
Kyle Schmidt and Liam Cherry came first and third respectively in midget male taegeuk VI and Alyssa Kunkel came second in junior female taegeuk VIII.
Master Wayne Mitchell of Kee's Yorkton said he was pleased that the tournament went by smoothly this year.
"It was much better this year," he said. "We used a new computer system this year. We haven't had a situation regarding computers (all day)."
Mitchell said the Prairie Wildfire Challenge is about giving the kids mentioned above "they best time they can".
The sparring competition attracted 160 student, Mitchell said.
With spectators included, Mitchell estimated about 500 people came out to the Flexihall Saturday either as a participant or a viewer.
Mitchell told YTW that it's hard to concentrate solely on his students who train regularly at Kee's. Part of his job at the Prairie Wildfire is to make sure things run smoothly.
"It's hard to say," when asked how his own students were making out. "You spend so much time doing administration, but today is pretty good."
He added that the competition is intended as a "developmental" event for each student. Francis Bazin and Kathryn Lohnes were among the Kee's students who were doing well.
