COMMUNICATION – The word for the week and beyond. This weekend we had fencers competing in four tournaments, five if you count the men’s and women’s SIFA tournaments as different events. As we were hosting two of those; gear, scoring machines, etc were going to be quite tight. I didn’t find out about a couple of people going to some of these events until only a few days before they happened. We absolutely want to support all of our fencers in whatever endeavors we can, but we absolutely need a better lead time. We had to pull out my little Russian machine and one of Herman’s ancient Triplettes to cover all the strips we had going. Luckily people had their own weapons or were able to borrow from friends because we needed our weapons as spares for the Iron Maiden, etc. Bottom line, anything you want to attend, we will do our best to make it happen, but give us at least a couple of weeks notice.
All that being said, it was a good weekend for our fencers.
In the foil for the Lynn Krupey Iron Maiden; Tammy Jackson of Mid-South took first, our Nora Reber was second, with Taylor May of UNCW grabbing one of the thirds. Kaitlyn Hohlmeier of Salle New Bern took the other third and said she will be attending UNCW next year, so you may see her around more.
In the epee Lauren Dunseath of Mid-South Fencers defeated Leslie Marx of the Marx Fencing Academy for the gold. Patricia Wilkens of the Savannah Fencing Club and CFFA’s Nicole Milewski (who had an epic struggle with Leslie Marx in their DE), tied for 3rd.
For the sabre, Ms. Marx had two lessons to teach every fencer. First, here is one of the best epeeists in US history hanging around at a little local tournament and fencing sabre so someone has the chance to earn an E rating. Never mind the fact that she went out and won the tournament sort of betrays that narrative, it’s the thought that counts. Of course, the second lesson is that excellent footwork, distance, timing, and strategy will translate from one weapon to another, even if you don’t know all the ins and outs of the second weapon. On the other hand, being six feet tall and left handed doesn’t hurt. Ms. Marx defeated Aelex Congiusta of Mid-South in the final. Katherine Stevens, also of Mid-South, and CFFA’s Elina Grooman, who I think won her first trophy at an adult tournament, tied for third.
Thanks to Herman, Brendan, Mike Kinney, Kim Phillips, Kenyatta Sanford, and Kathy Walters for making the event happen and cleaning up afterward.
While all that was going on upstairs, downstairs was the Homeschool League’s season ending individual championships. Our Phil Nazzaro, fencing under the banner of the Soutrheastern Homeschool Cardinals, won the tournament; becoming our first homeschool champion. Liam Coyle and Don Evans finished 5th and 8th. Thanks to Will Golder for helping Eric Brown with refereeing. Tammy Reid handled all of the managing chores.
Also on Saturday, Eoin O’Brien attended the Thunderbolt and Lightning unrated epee event at All-American in Fayetteville. A number of experienced, but just unrated epeeists were competing. Eoin won a match and lost his DE to the eventual winner, finishing fifth; so it was a good start to his career.
ALSO on Saturday, the UNCW fencing club sent a number of men to the SIFA (Southern Intercollegiate Fencing Association) championships at UNC -G in Greensboro. In epee there were 17 schools represented by 19 teams. A lot of Div I school club teams, such as UVA, Virginia Tech, Georgia, Clemson, Florida, NC State, Georgia State, William and Mary’s, etc., etc. UNCW’s team of Oliver Galbraith, Eli Nathan, and Richard Everhart; in what I believe was UNCW’s first attendance at the event took the gold medal. In foil, UNCW loaned Brandon DeBord to a composite team and they finished 3rd.
Finally, on Sunday, UNCW sent a women’s foil team of Taylor May, Lauren Whitehouse, and Hannah Whitaker to SIFA. They finished 4th of 8 teams, just missing the bronze medal.
This week is spring break for the local schools, so no afterschool
practice. I am still planning to have homeschool practice on
Wednesday. No Wednesday night practice as the UNCW people will be leaving for Easter break. No
practice at Topsail or Camp Lejeune on Good Friday.
On
March 31 there is a U foil event and mixed epee in Charlotte. The foil
is obviously good for a first adult tournament and the epee looks like
it should be at least a B, maybe an A event. If you didn’t preregister, the fees are now higher.
The next evening beginner class will start on Monday, April 2nd, at 6:30 pm.
St.
Mary does not have school on April 2nd, but most other local schools
do, so I will have afterschool practice. The last beginner class of the
school year will start this week.
April
7th is our next mixed event. It is up on askfred and will have epee,
foil, and an E and under foil. If we can find fifteen foilists, of whom
at least 4 are Es, there is the possibility of someone earning a D
without having to defeat the heavy hitters. That also makes this a
really good event for someone looking for a first foil tournament. At
the moment the epee needs one A or B to become an A event. The foil preregistration is pitiful. Only two each in the open and E and under. We try to do a few lower level events to let people start off in events without having to go against the more experienced fencers, so a lot of our people should be using this opportunity. Phillip, Zane, Emma, Andrew, Piotr. The other local high school foilists. All of those UNCW people who are not higher rated. This level of event is for you.
I
am changing the date of the next youth event to Sunday, April 8th.
To avoid mass the schedule will be foil at 2 pm, epee
and sabre at 5 pm. That seemed to work for those who responded.
The last homechool beginner class of the year will start on April 11 at 1:30 pm.
No
Saturday practice on the 14th due to Azalea Festival. There is a large
SYC shaping up in Fairfax, Virginia for those 14 and under over Friday – Sunday.
April
20-23 is a NAC in Richmond. The only people I saw who were signed up
were Brendan, Kim, Erica, Herman, and Nicole. If I missed you, or you
sign up now (the extra fees would apply) please let me know.
April 28 is Salle New Bern’s Skirmish at Jack’s Island. Always a fun time, so far we have 3 of the 8 fencers entered, but no one over a C is entered yet. It is on askfred.
pax vobiscum,
