On April 20th 2013 the Synergy Pro II was held at the Gilespie Sports Center.
Talitha competed in the u43/kg all bets division and I (Shaun) competed in the u67/kg and open weight blue belt divisions.

u43/kg u11/yrs Mixed All Belts

Talitha fought a hard fight against Lilleth Perkins (Perkins Jiu Jitsu) in her first round.
Talitha pulled guard and that is where the fight remained for the rest of the match. Neither of the girls were able to score or submit and when the time was up it was zeros all across the board. Unfortunately for Talitha the referees decision went in Lilleth’s favour and Talitha’s competition was over.

u67/kg Blue Belt Division

In the first round of the u67/kg division I competed against Gajan Satkunanathanyou (Perkins Jiu Jitsu).
I was able to get a quick leg pick takedown to begin the match, ending up inside of Gajan’s guard. I stood up to pass and as soon as Gajan’s guard popped open I passed through to side control. I controlled the position while setting up a clock choke and finished the fight with the submission.

For the final I competed with fellow Arruda Jiu Jitsu team mate Nate Bagua.
This match went for the whole 6 minutes with a final score of  7-2 / 6-0 on the scoreboard. However, after watching recorded video the score should have been 7-2 / 3-0. Luckily the scoring mistake was not enough to cause an incorrect decision and I won the gold medal in this competition for the 2nd year running.

Blue Belt Open Weight Division

I had two fights in the open weight division with the first round being a rematch with Gajan.
This time I was not able to secure a submission but won the fight with a score of 9-2.

My second fight was against a much heavier opponent 97kg. I was able to play my game and for the main part control my opponent. Unfortunately I made a mistake with my grips when switching from single leg x-guard to x-guard and gave my opponent an easy pass. From here I was able to recover to half guard but I was not able to sweep or submit from here. I lost the match with the score board reading 5-0. Once again watching the replay shows that she score should have been 3-0 with 2 points being awarded for an attempted guard pass. I learnt a lot from this match and I am much more conscious of my grips now with x-guard because of this.