For the third WGG tournament in a row, the absolute finals came down to Bill “the Grill” Cooper versus Jeff “The Snowman” Monson.
The top competitiors from the Pacific Northwest showed their stuff on the mat today as about 250 competitors competed in both gi and no gi divisions at the North American Western Regional tournament.
A large group of white and blue belts began the day to compete. In the purple belt division Bill Cooper submitted both of his opponents. Chris Woolfard won his brown belt match.
More competitors turned out for the nogi division. Ulysses Gomez, Bill Cooper, Keith Wilson, and Jeff Monson won their respective divisions. The absolute division came down to three competitors fighting round robin.
In the first match, Keith Wilson and Bill Cooper had a war which Keith had arm an d head control most of the match, but could not put away or even score on Cooper. Cooper was able to score two points on a sweep following a leg lock attempt. Keith Wilson then fought Jeff Monson and in a battle of two outstanding wrestlers Jeff Monson scored the takedown for the win.
Finally Bill Cooper and Jeff Monson had their third match in as many tournaments. While Jeff had a huge size advantage in this match, Bill had tons of flexibility and heart. Monson had a few near sub attempts but Bill had the will and escaped. THe battle continued through regulation, then overtime and then sudden death, and all told the match went for 31 minutes! Monson finally got the takedown for the victory to close out the tournament.
All in all a great day of action in the rainy Pacific NorthWest. Lots more pictures, video, and a full write up coming soon!