For the second year in a row, the competition team representing Nexus Martial Arts & Fitness in Wareham scored in the top ten of each overall team division at the North American Grappling Association New England Championships (NAGA), taking home an impressive 35 medals overall.

The official results were just released from the tournament, which took place on January 29 and 30. The Nexus Team won third place overall for Kids and Teens, took seventh place overall for Adult gi (with the uniform) and eighth overall for no gi (submission grappling without the gi), by far the highest ranking of any team in Southern Massachusetts. NAGA is the largest tournament in the northeast, and routinely draws well over 1,000 competitors to each event.

“We were really proud of our team once again,” said Nexus Master Instructor Stephen Whittier. “Although several of our adult students who planned on competing were not able to do it, we still had a great outing, and once again showed that we can compete head-to-head with the largest and most well-established teams in the Northeast.”

Although Whittier has been teaching arts like Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai kickboxing for many years. After he moved to the South Coast from the Boston area, he established a new school and formed a new team from scratch just over four years ago. Last year, with a young team and only one student with more than three years of experience, Nexus took home third place in overall teams (youth and adult divisions combined) at NAGA.