Beyer Hall was the site of an exciting, high-kicking sporting event over the weekend.

The Iowa State Karate Club sponsored the 16th Annual ISU Tae kwon do Tournament on Saturday. The tournament was open to people of all ages and included many competitors from all over the Midwest.

The ISU tae kwon do team had a good showing. No team scoring was kept for the Cyclones because they were the host of the tournament, but they had enough high place finishers to beat the first place team.

Cyclones Tim Wiegand and Bonnie Harrison won gold medals for sparring for their respective divisions. Janine Wiggins also received took top honors in forms competition for her division.

Wiegand looked at this tournament as a tune-up before collegiate competition.

“I was looking for three really good matches in this tournament,” Wiegand said. “I was mainly working on speed and footwork.”

Iowa State has one of the strongest tae kwon do programs in the nation. The team finished second at the national collegiate tournament and Wiegand likes his team’s chances of winning the national championship this year.

Team scores for the men and women are combined for nationals.

“We have a lot of depth this year,” Wiegand said. “In the past, the women have done a lot better than the men’s team, but this year the men’s team is just as strong as the women’s.”

The tournament was broken into four parts.

The morning started off with forms competition. In forms competition, participants do not compete against each other directly — instead two competitors do an exhibition of technique and style against an imaginary opponent. The winner is determined on a point system determined by a panel of judges.

The next event was musical forms, a creative expression in which participants demonstrate tae kwon do moves choreographed to music.

One of the highlights of the day was the demonstration portion of the tournament. Sueng Hyun Nam, a traveling professor at Iowa State from Korea, put on a show performed by his demonstration team. Nam is a former national coach for the Korean tae kwon do team.

The tournament was concluded with sparring competition.

Competitors faced off against each other and tried to outmaneuver their opponent using tae kwon do techniques.

Terry Poindexter-Gautreaux, an Olympic bronze-medalist in the 1992 games, was a referee for the tournament.

“I’m really impressed with this tournament,”Poindexter-Gautreaux said. “Iowa State has great facilities and they always have a good turnout. It’s always a pleasure to take part in this tournament.”