AAHS grad goes off the mat to mentor UFC fighter

Courtesy photo
Altoona Area High School grad Jason Kutz coaches Racquel Pennington during her UFC title bout in Toronto in January.

By John Hartsock

jhartsock@altoonamirror.com

Altoona native Jason Kutz, a 2014 inductee into the Blair County Sports Hall of Fame, made his mark in wrestling — a sport in which he excelled at both Altoona High School and Lehigh University, before placing fifth, third and second in freestyle competition at the U.S. World Team Trials, sixth at the Olympic Team Trials, and winning a gold medal at the World Military Freestyle Championships.

Kutz — who now lives in Colorado Springs with his wife, Christen, and their daughters Payton and Emerson — is grateful for also having had the opportunity to serve as a long-time wrestling coach.

His latest venture in that realm was guiding Racquel Pennington of Colorado Springs to the Ultimate Fighting Championships women’s national title in the 135-pound bantamweight division. Pennington, 35, won the title this past January at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, by a unanimous decision of the judges over Mayra Buena Vista of Brazil.

Pennington has been involved in the sport — which combines boxing, wrestling and martial arts skills such as Jiu-Jitsu — for the past 14 years, and she has been training with Kutz for the past 10.

“She’s had a long career with its ups and downs, but for her to reach the ultimate goal was an amazing thing to be a part of,” Kutz said of Pennington, who won the championship fight four rounds to one, and is now 16-8 in her career after having won her last six bouts in a row.

“It’s just been an awesome thing to watch somebody accomplish her dreams, and now she has the (championship) belt,” Kutz added.

Kutz, 49, said that Pennington dominated her championship fight.

“It was pretty one-sided,” Kutz said. “She is really well-rounded. I would say that her striking is definitely her forte, and that the wrestling and jujitsu all get lumped into one thing sometimes. Her Jiu-Jitsu coach and I have been working closely together and we kind of mesh the two disciplines of Jiu-Jitsu and wrestling together so that we do some stuff that is specifically tailored to her strengths.”

Pennington was ecstatic about reaching her long-time personal goal of attaining a national championship, and has been very appreciative of Kutz’s direction.

“Jason is my wrestling coach, my mentor, and my friend who has been on this journey with me for the past 10 years,” Pennington said. “It’s been 14 years of hard work overall for me to reach this point, and to see it all come together in achieving what has been an ultimate goal of mine is something that is really hard to put into words.”

Kutz also coaches a high school wrestling team in Colorado Springs, and has had an extensive coaching career that includes stints as a head wrestling coach at East Stroudsburg University and as an assistant coach at Lehigh.

Coaching in the mixed martial arts realm has been particularly satisfying for Kutz.

“I think that I like coaching the wrestling aspect in the MMA competition more than I like coaching just regular wrestling,” Kutz said. “Being able to tie in wrestling techniques with Jiu-Jitsu techniques is exciting.”