Two freshmen claim national Tae Kwon Do championships

Liberty University’s Tae Kwon Do team struck gold twice at the 40th annual National Collegiate Taekwondo Association (NCTA) National Championships, hosted over Easter weekend by the University of Delaware.

Freshman middleweight Jonathan Healy captured a black belt national championship the day after freshman heavyweight Tykeyah Henderson earned a yellow belt title. Non-black belt divisional titles were awarded on Saturday before black belt champions were crowned on Easter Sunday.

Healy, a Junior Olympic national team member from Houston, was named NCTA freshman athlete of the year and will now have the opportunity to represent Liberty and Team USA at the July 7-13 World University Games in Gwangju, South Korea.

Henderson claimed the women’s heavyweight yellow belt national championship in memory of her father.

“Tykeyah’s dad recently passed away and she promised him that she was going to win this for him right before he died,” Liberty Head Coach Jesse Wilson said. “She upheld her promise.”

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