As his college years wind to a close and law school approaches, senior Ahn-Khoa Tran thought he had one last event left in his college athletics career. What better way to end than with a trip to Denver three weeks ago for the collegiate taekwondo nationals?

How about a trip to Spain for the World University Championships?

With his third place finish at nationals on Apr. 17-18, Tran earned an unexpected chance to represent the United States in Vigo, Spain this July.

“I’m thrilled,” he said. “This was going to be my last competition. I trained hard for nationals. Fighting at nationals is awesome.”

Tran, who first picked up the sport at age six, headed to Denver on a mission to improve upon his performance at nationals last year in Rhode Island, when he did not place. The senior upgraded his fitness regimen, partly in anticipation of Colorado’s higher altitude.

“I started training a lot more, started training earlier,” he said. “It’s a really cardio-intensive sport. It was a running every morning and training every night type deal. I was working out twice a day, six days a week.”

The efforts certainly showed through as the senior earned a third-place finish at nationals.

“We’re just all really proud of him,” added teammate Julie Shapiro. “All the hard work and training’s paid off.”

But despite his desire to improve, Tran said he never thought he’d be able to head to Spain, which usually requires a first-place finish. The second place finisher would have gone to Peru with the B team for the Pan-American Games.

“I didn’t give any thought [to Spain],” he said. “I wanted to medal. I wanted to get at least third. I didn’t think I was going to make the Spain team.”

But when the top two place winners turned down the A team, the door opened for Tran to participate in his first-ever international fighting. And all of a sudden, the senior has one more competition ahead of him.

“[Making the team] was kind of a big surprise and really exciting at the same time,” Tran said.