History

History of C.W. Tae Kwon Do

Spring 1986 Mr. Sung Chul Whang, Mr. Jun Chul Whang, and Mr. Han D. Cho met at a taekwondo tournament in Vermont, and discussed possibility of forming a club in Cornell.

Fall 1986 Mr. Sung Cul Whang, Mr. Jun Chul Whang, and Mr. Han D. Cho along with Mr. Charles Liu, Mr. Sam Nam, Mr. Takayanagi , performed their first demonstration at the Robert Purcell Union Multi Purpose Room in hopes to attract new members for the forming of K. S. Tae Kwon Do. Mr. Randy Yu, and Mr. Sung Kim were among those who expressed their interest.

Spring 1987 Open to Cornell Communities. Workout was held at Barton Hall, three times per week. Future Black belters such as Mr. Randy Yu, and Mr. Howard Huang were among the first to join.

March 1987 Performed its first Cornell Korean Society Culture Night demonstration.

March 1987 Participated its first Ivy League Intercollegiate tournament under the name of "Cornell Team Taekwondo". Both Men's A team and B team took Second Place.

April 1987 Cornell Team Tae Kwon Do entered its second competion in Yale University. Men's A Team composed of Mr. Han D. Cho, Mr. Jun Chul Whang, Mr. Sung Chul Whang, Mr. Gene Takayanagi, and Mr. Sung Kim took first place. Men's B team took second.

April 1987 Held its first promotion test.

Fall 1987 Recognized by the Cornell Physical Education Department as a part of Phy Ed. elective. Members increased to over fifty students, and classes were held Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday at the Helen Newman Lounge.

October 1987 Entered MIT Tae Kwon Do Invitational. Cornell swept five first places out of the possible six, and received grand champion honor.

December 1987 Held its Second Promotion Test. Master Shin From Massachusetts was the promoter. The club's First black belt tested(Mr. Steven Kushner '88) and passed.

December 1987 Mr. Sung Chul Whang, Mr. Jun Chul Whang, and Mr. Han D. Cho were promoted to 3rd Dan by Master Shin.

January 1988 Members increased to over eighty. Classes were held at the Robison Hall of Fame Room in Schoellkopf Memorial Hall.

March 1988 Entered Columbia Ivy League Invitational and won the grand champion honor.

March 1988 Performed Demonstration at the Asian Student Union Culture Night.

April 1988 Entered Yale Ivy League Invitational and won the grand champion honor. Mr. Sung Chul Whang, and Mr. Jun Chul Whang announced their collegiate competion retirement.

April 1988 Performed Demonstration at the Cornell Korean Society Culture Night.

May 1988 Matthew Fishbach sucessfully passed his first degree black belt promotion.

August 1988 Members grew to over one-hundred students for the Fall semester of '88. Classes are held everyday except Wednesday and Saturday. Workout site moved to Helen Newman Dance Studio.

October 1988 Performed demonstration at the Smith College for the Korean American Cultural Affair.

October 1988 Participated in Columbia Ivy League Invitational and took the grand champion honor. Men's A team took first place, and B team took second. Theresa Van Der Vlugt won the women's individual sparring. Mr. Sung Chul Whang won first place in men's individual black belt poomse division. Greg Li won the intermediate poomse division, and Nicole won the Beginner's. Others also placed in their respective poomse divisions.

December 1988 Mr. Gene Takayanagi passed his first degree black belt test.

December 1988 Mr. Sung Kim graduated and left the team.

February 1989 Performed a demonstration at Colgate University.

February 1989 Held its first Conell Tournament. Among other great achivements made by many, the Cornell women 's team was especially impressive. Kathi Grundmann, Susan Rosenblatt, Michelle Kim, Julie Wei, and others swept women's sparring and poomse division. Cornell won the Grand Champion honor.

March 1989 Participated in its first New York State tournament. Mr. Gene Takayanagi took 3rd in Men's Feather weight division and Mr. Howard Huang took 2nd in Men's Fin weight division.

April 1989 Participated in Yale Ivy League Invitational and took the grand champion honor.

April 1989 Participated in National Tae Kwon Do championship for the first time.

May 1989 Mr. Howard Huang '90, and Mr. Craig Semon passed their black belt test. Mr. Howard Huang was awarded first degree black belt without the provisionary period.

May 1989 Mr. Sung Chul Whang, and Mr. Jun Chul Whang retire as head instructors to become Directors of the club. Mr. Han D. Cho becomes full time head instructor.

June 1989 First summer classes offered as a club sport.

August 1989 Mr. Hyun Shik Chung sucessfully passed his black belt test.

August 1989 Members grew to over two hundred fifty students.

October 1989 Participated in Columbia Ivy League Invitational and took grand champion honor(over seventy students competed).

December 1989 First person to sucessfully achive 1st degree black belt started from white belt at the club (Mr. Randolph Yu).

December 1990 Mr. Sung Chul Whang, Mr. Jun Chul Whang, and Mr. Han D. Cho received 4th degree black belt from Kukiwon.

January 1990 Changed Club's name from K.S. Tae Kwon Do of Ithaca to C.W. Tae Kwon Do of Ithaca.

February 24, 1990 Held first Cornell Intercollegiate Scrimmage, and Korean dinner afterwards. Mr. Sung Chul Whang, and Mr. Jun Chul Whang directed the event. Over one hundred fifty students from six different schools participated.

April 14th, 1990 Held Second Cornell Collegiate Taekwondo Invitational and won the grand champion honor with the help of its strong women's team. Mr. Han Cho retires from collegiate competitions.

June 1990 Offered its first summer session as a phys. ed. elective.

August 1990 Mr. Paul Ruddick successfully passed his black belt test.

August 1990 Participated in the first Taekwondo International competition held in New York. Boris Yost, and Alisa Alma won first place in their respective poomse divisions. Many others placed in the sparring division.

August 1990 Members increase to over three hundred students.

September 1990 Participated in the U.S. Cup at New Jersey State. Mr. Todd Holzman won first place at intermediate sparring division.

October 24, 1990 Participated in 15th National Collegiate Tae Kwon Do Tournament. Miss Theresa van Der Vlugt took 3rd in black belt poomse, and Miss Katie Grundmann won the Women's Welter Weight division. Over one hundred fifty schools competed.

November 3, 1990 Participated in New York State Governor's Cup championship. Mr. Mike Mertens won the Men's Welter weight division, and Mr. Todd Holzman won the Men's Heavy Weight division.

November 4, 1990 Held Third Cornell Collegiate Taekwondo Invitational and won the grand champion honor.

November 24, 1990 Held its first Board Breaking Day.

December 1990 First women ever promoted to black belt. Miss Katie Gundmann, Miss Susan Rosenblatt, Miss Debra Squires, and Miss Terri van Der Vlugt successfully pass their first degree black belt test.

January 26, 1991 Participated in the first New York State Collegiate Seminar held in University of Rochester.

February 17, 1991 Participated in the National Elite's Tournament held in Olympic Training Center in Colorado. Mr. Mike Mertens took bronze medal in Men's Welter Weight divison.

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October 1995 Sent first team to the 20th National Collegiate Taekwondo Championships hosted by NYU. In black belt competition, Jennifer Huang ('95) and Janice Myint ('96) take bronze in sparring in the Welter and Lightweight divisions. Jin Kim ('97) takes gold in the poomse division. The team takes 3rd place in the overall competition.

October 1995 Sent team to U.S. Cup competition. Jin Kim takes gold in the Lightweight sparring division and beats the Welterweight gold to earn a spot on the U.S. Cup team going to Venezuala for competition.

May 1996 Sent five man team to the 22nd U.S. National Taekwondo Championship held at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

July 1996 Jennifer Huang wins first place in women's Welterweight division sparring at the 1996 U.S. National Collegiate Team Trials and is selected for the U.S. National Collegiate Team to compete at the World University Games in St. Petersburg, Russia in September 1996.

October 1996 Sent team to U.S. Cup competition. Jin Kim takes gold in the Welterweight sparring competition and beats the Lightweight gold to earn a spot on the U.S. Cup team going to Germany for competition.

November 1996 Sent six man team to the 21st National Collegiate Taekwondo Championships hosted by UC Berkeley. In black belt competition, Jennifer Huang places second, Charles Kim ('96) places second, and Dan Chuang ('97) places third in the poomse competition. Janice Myint and Dan Chuang place third in sparring in the Lightweight and Flyweight divisions. The team takes 2nd place in the overall competition.

November 1996 Cornell garners Grand Champion honors at I/NCTL-sanctioned 9th Northeast Collegiate Tae Kwon Do Invitational.

March 1997 Competed at the 8th Princeton Collegiate Invitational and took Grand Champion honors.

November 1997 Sent team of black belts to 22nd National Collegiate Taekwondo Championships. The team took 3rd place overall with Abbe Sussman taking third place in women's Welterweight division sparring.

November 1997 Hosted 10th Northeast Collegiate Taekwondo Invitational. Colleges in attendance included Cornell, Princeton, NYU, Columbia, U.Buffalo, UPenn, and Lehigh. Cornell took Grand Champion honors. The tournament is I/NCTL sanctioned.

February/March 1998 Competed at 9th Princeton Collegiate Invitational and took Grand Champion honors.

March 1998 Competed at 1998 Columbia Collegiate Invitational and took Grand Champion honors.

April 1998 Competed at 1998 Yale Collegiate Invitational and took Grand Champion honors. Cornell wins the 1997-1998 I/NCTL Cup for finishing with the most number of points.

May 1998 Jennifer Huang, Cornell '95, currently training at West Side Taekwondo in New York City, place 3rd in the Featherweight division, earning her a trip to the National Team Trials. She beat Jennifer Srtowski, 1997 National Champion, in the quarterfinal match in an exciting match in which she overcame a 2 point deficit in the last 5 seconds of the third round to tie the match. She was declared winner by virtue of her ring dominance.

September 1998 At the September 1998 Olympic Division Trials held at the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Jennifer Huang took third place in the Featherweight division, automatically qualifiying her for the March 1999 Olympic Weight Division Team Trials. She suffered a torn achilles tendon while competing at a local tournament in November of 1998, but recovered in time to compete at the Olympic Division Team Trials in March. Although she did not place, she has gained invaluable experience from those tournaments. Jennifer received a bronze medal this year, and has her sights set on moving up to a gold in 2000.

October 1998 Sent team of black belts to 23rd National Collegiate Taekwondo Championships. The team took 3rd place overall with Chinadum Osuji taking silver in Men's Welterweight, Robert Futrick taking silver in Mens' Heavyweight, Katherine Mantzaris taking silver in Women's heavyweight, Daniel Chuang taking bronze in Men's Fin weight, and Jessica Farrell taking bronze in Women's Lightweight.

November 1998 Hosted 11th Northeast Collegiate Taekwondo Invitational. Colleges in attendance included Cornell, Princeton, NYU, Columbia, U.Buffalo, UPenn, and Lehigh. Cornell took Grand Champion honors. The tournament is I/NCTL sanctioned.

April 1999 Won the INCTL Cup.

November 1999 Hosted 12th Northeast Collegiate Taekwondo Invitational. Colleges in attendance included Cornell, Princeton, NYU, U. Buffalo, and UPenn. Cornell took Grand Champion honors.

April 2000 Won the INCTL Cup.

April 2000 Cornell sent a team of black belts to the NY State Championship in Binghamton NY. Cornell Alum Dan Chuang won gold in finweight and silver in flywieght. In bantamweight, Ariel Pauling won gold and Bill Pottle took silver. In featherwieght, Jeff Lee took silver, and Chinedum Osuji took gold in welter and Chris Fey took gold in middle. Dan Schwartz won forms.

October 2000 Sent a team of black and yellow belts to the US Cup tournament in Hartford, CT. Alex Dunfey earned a gold in forms and sparring. Evan Hopkins and Bob Pealo earned silver medals in sparring. Bill Pottle earned a bronze medal for sparring in the featherweight division. Abhi Mathur won a silver medal in forms, after a tie for first with Cornell TKD alumnus, Gideon Lin, who won gold. Alum Dan Chuang won fin and fly and the trip to Paris for a competition in which he took sliver.

October 2000 Won 1st place with 304 points at the NYU Tournament. A1 mens came in second, A2 mens came in third, A1 womens came in first and A2 womens came in third. Juliet Do got gold for forms with Vanessa Alvarado getting a bronze in black belt division.

November 2000 Hosted 13th Northeast Collegiate Taekwondo Invitational. We took Grand Champion honors. A1 mens got second place. Womens A1 got second place. In mens black belt forms, Gideon Lin(NYU) took 1st and Dan Schwartz(Cornell) took 2nd. Juliet Do(Cornell) took 2nd in forms.

Feburary 2001 Came in second place to U Penn at John Jay Tournament, (previously called Princeton). It was one of the closest tournaments ever. Though U Penn was leading by a lot from forms, Cornell's excellent performance in sparring narrowed the gap in the end to 29 points. Mens A1 got gold and A2 got bronze. Womens A1 got bronze.

March 2001 A two person team went to NY States, with Carolyn Deckinger getting silver in sparring(red belt), and Abhi Mathur getting gold in forms(1st Dan).

April 2001 One of the biggest teams we have ever taken went to Yale(43). Once again it was one of the closest tournaments in history. Cornell took second to U Penn by less than 34 points. Even though Dan Schwartz got gold in forms, we were losing after the forms part. Yet, due to an excellent performance by the team, the final result was very close. Mens A1 and A2 teams got bronze, and womens A1 team got bronze also.

April 2001 The end of the month featured a dramatic day and a half stretch. On Friday night several alumni returned to test for advanced belts. Chinedum Osuji, Ben Watross, Chris Cibulskis, Adrain Johnson, Chris Tuozollo, and Mai Lee all tested for their third degree black belts, while Margaret Sounders tested for her 2nd degree black belt. Then, in order to safeguard our position on top of the INCTL, a small team of mostly black belts awoke at 3 a.m. to drive to New York City to compete in the Columbia tournament. Dramatic showings by both the men's and women's A teams actually resulted in the team placing first overall. With the INCTL cup safe once again, the team hurried back to regroup at the Statler Hotel for the first ever Cornell Taekwondo Semi-formal dance.

May 2001 With a team of mostly black belts, Cornell won the Columbia Tournament only participating in forms and A team sparring. With this win, Cornell once again won the INCTL Cup.

May 2001 The 2001 senior video is completed. For the first time, the video is completely digital and can now be posted online for alumni around the world to download. The video was produced by Bill Pottle and Regina Clewlow and featured the new "CUTKD Theme Song" written and performed by Ton Chookhare.

Summer 2001 The club requirements are changing to focus on producing more complete martial artists. This summer saw the addition of grappling and boxing requirements.

September 2001 The Taekwondo house garage is remodeled to a dojang, complete with flags. The facility is open to all club members.

September 2001 The first ever INCTL All- Star Qualification Tournament is held at Temple University. This double elimination, black belt only tournament used the combined weight divisions. Cornell sent six competitors. In the men's flyweight division, Mike Donikian took forth and Bill Pottle took gold, defeating rival Tai Kim from Buffalo twice. In the men's featherweight division, alum Gideon Lin (NYU) took second to Late Lawson (Temple). In the men's welterweight, Jeff Lee took silver after many tough matches. In Men's heavyweight, Paul McCord also took silver. In the women's bantamweight, freshman Tanya Paterno took three nine minute matches to beat Naiomi Santa-Maria (Penn). In the women's welterweight, Nancy Archambault had to withdraw from the final match due to an injury. She had split the first two matches with Liza Shaknovich (Penn).

October 2001 Cornell sends a team to the US CUP tournament.

October 2001 Cornell does not send any players to Collegiate Nationals, but alum Gideon Lin wins a bronze medal in the featherweight division.

October 2001 Cornell sends a team to the NYU tournament. Men's and women's A take first and women's A2 gets a bronze. The team wins the tournament with 577 points. NYU is second with 355 and Penn is third with 318. Letizia Delrome and Alice Tu take first and second in women's black belt forms and Abhishek Mathur takes second in men's black belt forms.

November 2001 Cornell hosts the 14th annual Cornell tournament, organized by club president Jeff Lee. 250 competitors representing 14 schools attended. The men's A teams take first and third, while the women's team loses a tough finals match to Harvard. Cornell wins the tournament with 467 points. NYU comes in second with 300 and and Harvard is 3rd with 231. After the tournament several players stay over and the Temple and Cornell teams party together at the Taekwondo House.

November 2001 Chinedum Osuji (Trinidad and Tobago) becomes the first Cornell trained player to compete in the World Championships held in Jeju, Korea. Chinedum received an extremely unlucky draw, losing a close match in the first round to the eventual gold medallist from France, who easily destroyed most of his opponents.

December 2001 Cornell sent a team to the first ever Upenn Invitational. The tournament was added to be the third of six tournaments in the INCTL season. Tanya Paterno placed third in the women's black belt forms and the men's and women's A teams took gold. However, Cornell still ended up second. Upenn took first with 420 points to Cornell's 371. Yale was third with 349.

December 2001 Nancy Archambault, Rob Paderofsky, Carolyn Deckinger, Lev Lyubchenko, and Brian Montenegro test for their black belts. Promotion tests are now moved to the Lansing Dojang to accommodate the grappling requirements.

January 2002 Cornell represents well at the first INCTL All Star exchange trip. Due to a disqualification of the gold medal winner in the men's heavyweight division, sophomore Paul McCord now joins freshman Tanya Paterno and Masters of Engineering student Bill Pottle on the trip. The featherweight is Cornell alum Gideon Lin, and the coaches are Master Rex Hatfield of Princeton and Cornell alum Dan Chuang of MIT.

March 2002 Cornell sent a team to Princeton for their annual tournament. It was a close tournament all day. The men's A team lost in the first round. Previous to this, the men's A1 team had five golds and one bronze in six tournaments. The women's team, lead by Tanya Paterno and Nancy Archambault picked up the gold, however. At the end of the day, it came down to the men's B team finals with our team sparring Temple. The match was split 1-1 and heavyweight Evan Hopkins stepped up to record a fantastic victory, raising the B team out of its slump. He was carried out of the ring on the shoulders of his teammates. The points gave Cornell a tie for first place- with MIT. The teams took a memorable picture together and Dan Chuang was forced to shave his head.

March 2002 Several members travel to New York City over spring break to train with the newly formed CWNYC club headed by several alumni.

April 2002 Cornell sent a team to the Columbia tournament. Tanya Paterno took gold in women's black belt forms. The women's A teams were dominant. In the end, Women's A2 (Alice Tu, Sherry Lai, Letizia Delrome) bowed out to A1 (Carolyn Deckinger, Tanya Paterno, Nancy Archambault). On the men's side, the team progressed to the finals quickly, outscoring opponents by a combined score of 26-4. Bill Pottle was injured in the finals and had to bow out midway through the lightweight match. Jeff Lee came on win an exciting and emotional match against Gideon Lin to wrap up the gold for the Men. Cornell won the tournament by a large margin.

April 2002 Cornell sent a small team to the New York State Championships. Tanya Paterno picked up a gold in forms and bantamweight sparring, Bill Pottle picked up a long-awaited gold in forms, and Abhi Mathur came out with a unique "Kor-Baek." Freshmen Mary Corbett, Jenn Burg, and Jean Kung placed first, third, and forth in the green belt forms division. In sparring, Jean took a silver, Jenn took the bronze and Mary placed fifth. Mary would go on to win a silver medal in sparring at adult nationals a month later. Several Lansing members also competed and did well, especially the children.

April 2002 The next day after the state championship Cornell sent a very small team to the Yale invitational and still managed to place 4th out of 15 teams. Tanya and Nancy anchored the women's A team, and Megan Lembeck stepped in as the lightweight to help take gold. The women's A team finished the year with five gold medals and one silver.

April 2002 Alumni return from across the country to Ithaca for a Cornell Taekwondo Reunion weekend. Phil Yen and Jeremy Lang return from CWNYC to test for their 2nd degree black belts with senior Abhi Mathur. MVP Juliet Do returns from Chicago to test for her third degree black belt. Dan Chuang and Bill Pottle both test for their fourth degree black belt. Grappling and boxing requirements are integrated into the curriculum The night featured the second annual semi-formal (without the internet/intimate jokes this time) organized by Carolyn Deckinger. It was a great time to visit with old friends and reflect on the past and future.

May 2002 Promotion test held at Lansing. Mike Donikian tests for his black belt and finishes the test off with a decisive board break.

June 2002 The long-awaited Senior Video is now complete, courtesy of Mike Donikian. The video featured the "Iron Chef" cooking competition as well as LEGO art. The video was over 30 minutes in length.