On Saturday April 29, 2023, UCLA Wushu sent 33 athletes to compete at the 24th Annual Collegiate Wushu Tournament in San Jose, California.
Known as "Collegiates" in the U.S. wushu community, the tournament was first held in 1997 and quickly grew to attract national attention. After a three year hiatus since 2020, UC Berkeley's team, CalWushu, stepped up to host this year's tournament which attracted the participation of thirteen different schools.
UCLA Wushu boasted the most competitors from any school. The UCLA delegation won 36 individual medals (17 gold, 12 silver, and 7 bronze) spread across the beginner, intermediate, and advanced divisions. 24 competitors of the team were additionally organized into four six-member teams which competed in the groupset and team all-around events. In the groupset event, the 6 team members compete in a choreographed set against other teams. Group sets are scored on technical execution, coordination, performance, choreography, and difficulty. In the team competition, the individual medals from the 6 team members are summed with the groupset placing to create a team all-around score. UCLA took the top two placements in the groupset event and achieved the first ever podium sweep of the team all-around in collegiate wushu history. Both group championship events were won by "WangXian and Friends." UCLA's delegation at the 2023 tournament has arguably achieved one of the best showings in history at the Collegiate Wushu Tournament.
Team "WangXian and Friends" won both the groupset event and the team competition
Natalie Sun ('24), Talia Tam ('24), Brian Ye ('26), Trevor Guo ('24), Ethan Shi ('23), and Alicia Sanoyca ('24)
Participating in my first wushu collegiate competition was truly a memorable experience. The road trip to the Bay Area with my teammates was so much fun, filled with spontaneous stops at fruit stands, boba shops, and restaurants along the way. At the competition, It was really great to meet and reconnect with members of the collegiate wushu community. Watching all our teammates perform so well in competition was super rewarding because I know the amount of hard work and time we all put into our training. I couldn't be prouder of our team, and I can't wait to attend another collegiate competition next year!
- UCLA Wushu Co-President Natalie Sun ('24)
UCLA's victories follow the historic win by the "Ghristian Conzales (Animal Style)" groupset at the 2019 tournament in UC Irvine. The victories by "WangXian and Friends" continues UCLA's championship title in groupset, and the team all-around championship win breaks the 11-year streak held by CalWushu. The last time UCLA held the team all-around championship title was in 1997. In addition, UCLA is now the second team in history to sponsor four group teams at the collegiate tournament after CalWushu did so in November 2002 (known as the 2003 collegiates).
Individual Medalists
Group Event Results
|
Event
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Gold
|
Silver
|
Bronze
|
|
Groupset
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"WangXian and Friends"
(UCLA)
|
"Vincent Loves Dragons"
(UCLA)
|
U. of Washington
|
|
Team all-around
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"WangXian and Friends" (UCLA)
|
"Everything Bagel" (UCLA)
|
"Vincent Loves Dragons"
(UCLA)
|
