CSU East Bay’s Taekwondo team hosted the second PacWest conference tri-meet of the season against UC Berkeley and University of Southern California on Feb. 4.  

CSUEB came into the meet with four fighters, each fighter scheduled for one fight.  The lone exception was Emily Chow, who was scheduled for two fights, one to start the competition and the other to finish.  

In Chow’s first match, she faced a stubborn Cal opponent in Gina Kim, who made things difficult for her from the get-go.  It was hard for her to get her bearings as she tried to brush off the onslaught of kicks to the head and even a few shots to the face.  

Chow’s second match was not as one-sided, despite an unfavorable outcome, but she was able to recover and fight back against USC’s Cameron McClees to the delight of her team, who supported each other with their traditional “East Bay Fight” cheer.  

Aileen Arcinas was next up for CSUEB and she quickly went to work on Cal’s Sayuri Takagawa.   Arcinas fought hard and delivered a well-balanced attack to keep her opponent in check.  A few well-timed shots by Arcinas allowed her to defeat Takagawa.

Fighting from the men’s side for CSUEB was Cesar Elenes.  Elenes, at first observation, was visibly shorter than Cal’s Will Connick and had to maintain a close proximity in order to fight off the disadvantage in reach.  Elenes did what he could to protect himself, but it was not enough as Connick dominated the fight.  Elenes took a few shots to the head and really left little room for any comeback in the match.  

Also on the men’s side for CSUEB was Eduardo Villanueva.

Villanueva wasted no time in his fight and went on the attack, delivering multiple kicks including a devastating blow that sent USC’s Tony Chun’s protective head gear flying off his head.  When all was said and done, Villanueva came out on top.  

The collegiate season for Taekwondo is relatively short and for Coach Ernest Kuo, the main focus is development.  

“This is kind of a rebuilding year for us. We have some new people getting experience and they are working more for next year.  Our last match of the PacWest conference is April 11, and then in April we will also have the National Collegiate Championships hosted at MIT this year,” explained Kuo.

Due to some scheduling conflicts, UC Davis, who would have hosted UC Los Angeles and Stanford, was forced to relocate their home event and managed to get the support of the CSUEB Taekwondo program to facilitate the move.  

The UC Davis tri-meet started prior to the East Bay-led event and, when all was said and done, Davis came out on top, followed by UCLA in second and Stanford in third.   

The nature of the event was very rare, as most events outside of major tournaments usually consist of tri-meets or dual-meets.  UC Davis Taekwondo president Daniel Kim was on hand and grateful for the hospitality provided.

“You know what, CSUEB was really helpful and this is pretty unique having six schools all in one place. It’s not standard usually to have this type of set up.”  

The PacWest Taekwondo division consists of eight teams, including CSUEB, Cal Berkeley, Stanford, USC, UC San Diego, UC Irvine and UCLA.  

Up next for CSUEB is a dual meet at UC Davis on Feb. 25, and the season finale on Mar. 10, where they face UC Irvine and Stanford at Stanford.