Bainbridge Island’s Pacific Fusion Martial Sports Team earned numerous national titles and gold, silver and bronze medals at the Amateur Athletic Union Taekwondo National Championships last month in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Pebbles Featherston and Piper McCarrel were named Grand Champions with the highest overall placements and medal counts of anyone in their age groups.

The 26 athletes entered 196 divisions and earned 111 medals total in sparring, weapons, forms and breaking—with 48 of those being gold. There are now 16 new individual national champions —some earning titles two, three or more times.

Every team member placed in top positions at the state tournament and then traveled to Florida for nationals. The team competed in intermediate, advanced and black belt divisions. The local athletes train out of Pacific Fusion Premier Martial Arts on Sportsman Club Road and have attended local and out-of-state tournaments in preparation for nationals, in addition to putting in many hours of practice each week.

“These kids are Bainbridge-grown, and many had no competitive martial arts experience,” Grand Master Ken Aduddell said, adding half the team just started competing this season. “It’s amazing to see how far they’ve come in such a short time.”

Other winners were: Axel Merritt, Chase Rudnick, Conlan Poncelow, Cristina Juarez Guadalupes, Dan Gregson, Elijah Suseyi, Freya Kroeger, Harper Thomasson, Haven Rudnick, Isabella Osborne, Isabelle Yun, Kai Marquardt, Lauren Roger, Matthew Yun, Max Kutac, Naomi Chow, Natalie Fleischmann, Oscar Albrecht, Parker Yun, Ryder Downing, Syah Suri, Tricia Fong, Zahara Rist and Weston Schick. Also, Stephanie Aduddell was named AAU Coach of the Year.