Wow!!!! It was an awesome youth “Winter Campaign” fencing scrimmage we held today at the NTGOC. Great fencing, terrific prizes, delicious food, and superb support by so many DHFC families and friends of fencing.
Ridemakerz sponsored terrific prizes (remote control cars and trucks) for the first and second place winners in all three of our events. Visit their store in the Spotsylvania Towne Center, to see the kinds of cool toy vehicles they have for sale.
A brief summary of the results:
In the Y-14 foil event, there were initially 19 competitors, but our own Veronica “Nicki” Thornton had to withdraw because of illness. The only DHFC members to make it to the medal round were Breck “Viper” O’Donnell and Marco “the Fox” Gomez-Wong. They each won bronze medals. Viper was the #3 seed entering the Direct Elimination. He lost a close semi-final match to the #2 seed, lefty Clinton Rodell. The Fox, who is also a lefty was seeded #5. He also lost a very close one to the #1 seed, James Ott. Clinton went on to defeat James for the gold medal and the “2009 Dodge Ram” monster truck by Ridemakerz. James won the silver medal and a “2009 Dodge Challenger” by Ridemakerz.
In the Y-14 epee event, there were about 10 competitors, including four from DHFC (Alexander Foster, Sean Mades, RD Scoggins, and Joe Anderson). This was the first epee competition for our new epee. The more experienced epee fencers from the other clubs succeeded in shutting our novices out of the medal round.
In the Y-10 foil event, there were about seven competitors. Kyle “Wolf” Raymond battled Andrew Grasse, Virginia Academy of Fencing for the gold medal and one of the Ridemakerz prize vehicles. Andrew edged Kyle in both their bouts to win the best of three series, 2 - 0. Kyle won the silver medal and a Hot Rod, while Andrew won the gold and a customized Mustang.
I want to give thanks to all those who provided support to our scrimmage: Father John and the parish council of the NTGOC for the use of their outstanding facility. Referees Bruce Callander, Dave Ando (Amelia Steel), and Dan Taylor-McNally (Have Blade Fencing Club). Bout committee: Tom Lauzon, Bruce Callander and Lynn Jones (Secretary of the VA Division of the US Fencing Association). Urgent Needs Equipment: Dan Taylor-McNally for loaning us a replacement reel and epees when we needed them to continue running the scrimmage smoothly. Food concessions staff: Chef Lincoln Marquis and Mrs. Kelly Mades. Facility set-up, take-down and cleaning: The Mades family, the Raymond family, the Schlee family, Dave Ando, et.al. Computer printer support: The Thornton and Schwartz families. Last but not least, to our sponsor, Ridemakerz, and Ms. Ryann Jones of Ridemakerz. As you can see, even a small-scale scrimmage requires a lot of support to run smoothly.
Thank you all.
The foil competitors.
After the pool round, the referee from each strip selected a sportsmanship award winner.
The foil medalists.
The epee medalists.
More pictures.