Among the hundreds of competitors at this past Saturday's Submissions Vancouver competition, five Yukoners managed to stand out.

The Yukon contingent turned more than a few heads at the event, winning an impressive five medals by its conclusion. The group finished with two gold medals, one silver medal and two bronze medals.

"I was going to be happy if I just won a match," said D.J. Sumanik, an instructor at MMA Yukon and participant at Submissions Vancouver.

"I was not expecting to be so competitive and not only that, but our entire team was very competitive. It's pretty satisfying to be a small club from a small town to compete against some of the best guys in western Canada. There were several pro fighters there and all of us did very well. I am proud of everyone."

The competition was a part of the Submission Series, which features submission-only tournaments. The events in the series are hosted around the west coast of British Columbia.

Tournaments in the series award advantage points for technical submission attempts. Saturday's competition had a Gi and No-Gi category as well as divisions for different weight classes.

There were no points given at the tournament, which featured a five minute time limit for an individual match.

Winners were determined through submission, or if the match ended up going the distance, the competitor with the most technical submission attempts was given the victory. The event on Saturday had a single elimination format, unless a competitor made it to the semi-finals.

Besides Sumanik, the five Yukoners included Gracie Barra Yukon Jiu-Jitsu instructor Charles Eshleman and his student Ryan Dragoman. The other two are Boris Hoefs and Jesse Loyer, who are both members of MMA Yukon.

Loyer, 30, finished with the most medals among the Yukoners, winning a gold and a bronze medal at the championship. He was the most experienced fighter among the Yukon athletes and has competed professionally in King of the Cage and other Mixed Martial Arts fights.

Sumanik, 29, competed in the Super Heavy Weight No-gui category and placed second. This was his first competition in the sport.

Sumanik was so committed to taking part in the Submission Series event that he cancelled a house boating vacation to compete in Vancouver.

He said it was a relief to win the silver medal.

"I have been training pretty hard for almost two years and I had a lot of pressure on myself," Sumanik said.

"We don't really have any external competitors to go against, so it's difficult to gauge how well you are doing up here. We just kept going and going and it looks like we are doing just fine.

There's definitely room for improvement across the board in all of us and I think we are going to continue to have success."

Sumanik said having the MMA Yukon Club and participating in the tournament wouldn't have been possible without the support of Peak Fitness, which is where the group trains in Whitehorse.

There is a total of 12 full-time members in MMA Yukon and the group meets four times a week from Friday through Monday. Anyone who is interested can come out for lessons, which are at the moment free.

The club usually meets at 6 p.m. on Fridays and Mondays and 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. All participants in MMA Yukon must provide their own cup and mouth guard.

Training sessions at MMA Yukon include a group warm up, which includes a few drills, such as stretches, push-ups and jumping jacks. The group also practices the mui thai martial arts technique.

A portion of the class is spent to performing kicks, punches and boxing. The sessions will usually finish with some Jiu jitsu instruction, which focuses mostly on the ground game and uses various chokes and submissions.

MMA Yukon normally has sparring sessions twice a week. The sparring sessions are done with pads, mouth guards and other necessary gear.

Hoefs, who competed in the Light Weight category, won both his matches to capture the gold medal. The competition started with the lighter weight categories, so Hoefs was the first Yukoner to compete at the tournament and pumped up his fellow Yukoners with his victory.

Hoefs, 20, was the final person out of the five to commit to the trip, which wouldn't have been possible for him without financial support from EBA Engineering, and HRC Engineering, which is based out of Alberta, and Anboca Environmental.

What makes his golden performance even more incredible is the fact that Hoefs just got involved with MMA Yukon around six weeks ago. Both of his matches at the tournament went the five-minute distance.

He said it was awesome to win the gold medal.

"It was good," Hoefs said. "I have done Karate my whole life and I have been boxing the last few years and a little bit of kick boxing with Charles, but I just started the ground game last month. We all did so well. We are just so happy with knowing we can compete with what we have up here."

Eshleman, 44, won a bronze medal in the Heavy Weight and Gui category, while Dragoman just missed out on winning a medal of his own, placing fourth.

Despite not winning a medal, Dragoman impressed more than a few people at the competition and won four of his six matches. Out of the five Yukoners, he was the youngest at 16 years old.

Eshleman said Dragoman exceeded his expectations.

"Ryan didn't get any medals this tournament, but he has gained so much experience and impressed so many judges and instructors," Eshleman said. "He's received a lot of compliments about his competition and his technique. He has amazing heart."

Gracie Barra Yukon is based out of Dawson City. Membership varies throughout the year and can include as many as 20 people in the winter.

Gracie Barra Yukon focuses on kickboxing Tuesday and Thursday and then switches to Jiu jitsu for Wednesday and Friday.

Saturday is an open gym and participants are free to practice whatever they prefer.