The company providing insurance for the club through USAFencing is requiring that all club member also be a member of USAFencing. I have posted to relevant documents to review. The first is the insurance update sent by USAFencing in March. The second is a recent description of membership catagories. Please review these documents for the annual business meeting on 4 June. Everyone on the fencing floor will need to have some form of USAFening membership if you are going to fence. The membership requirement will go into effect on 1 August 2012 so we have some time, but not much.

The first competition of the day was foil with 21 fencers.  The foil winner was Levente Szego from the Rockville Fencing Academy.  Taking second was Stephen Gross also from Rockville.  Tied for third place were John Genn from Dominion Fencing and Dan Vunck from Richmond Fencing Club

Foil Winners: Szego, Gross, Genn, Vunck

The next up was saber with 13 competitors.  The saber winner was Garik Gutman from Rockville.  Second place was Vincent Paragano from Medeo Fencing Club in New Jersey.  Tied for third were Richard Brown, also from Medeo and Ron Thornton from Dark Horse.

Saber Winners: Paragano, Brown, Gutman, Thornton

Finally, the epee competition was held with 18 fencers.  Taking first prize was Joe Deucher from Desert Blades (Nevada Division).  Second prize went to Jeff Snider from Olde Town Fencing Gang, Alexandria, VA.  Tied for third were William Schroeder from Rockville and David Shaw from Isle of Wright Fencing Club.

Epee Winners: Schroeder, Shaw, Snider Deucher

Joe Deucher also took the “Bon Fer” honors.  The Bon Fer (French for “Good Steel”) goes to the fencer who did the best in all three events.  Joe placed first in Epee, seventh in Foil and ninth in Saber earning a 41 points out of a possible 52 for 79%.

The first day of the tournament brought together 41 foil and 13 sabre fencers from across Virginia and neighboring states.  During the second day, 21 epee fencers competed.  Liz and Jean participated in the very competitive foil tournament.  Five “B” rated foil fencers helped the tournament to a B2 rating.  Jean had a particularly difficult pool that included the tournament winner and another fencer who finished in the top six.  Liz’s pool was not much easier, having to fence one of the third place finishers.  While neither Jean nor Liz won their first DE bout, both made a respectable showing losing ,15-9 and 15-11 respectively.

As the foil competition was winding down, Greg and Tom competed in the sabre event.  Greg, a W&M senior and member of the fencing team, had a good pool round with a 4-1 record, seeding him 4th coming out of the pools.  Tom broke even with a 3-3 pool record, but that was good enough to place him 8th.  Both Greg and Tom won their first DE.  Tom fell to the number one seed, but had an enjoyable bout against a fine “A” rated fencer (who was kind enough to coach Tom during the break).  Greg had a difficult time initially with his second DE, being down 8-2 at the break.  Greg changed his game and was able to score 8 points to his opponent’s 7 in the second half, a good comeback but not in time.

Having the whole family fencing makes for a full day.  There is always someone to coach or to cheer for while waiting for your event to start or after it is finished.  The discussion at dinner covers the day’s good touches or the calls that we thought should have gone the other way.

1. Jonathan Taylor (DHFC)
2. Charles Charest (UMWFC)
3. Joseph Boudreau
4. Paul Edemobi (UMWFC)
5. Logan Everts (DHFC)
6. Nicholas Cook (DHFC)
7. Derek Anderson (UMWFC)
8. Laura Spain (UMWFC)

Referees: DHFC Coach Tom (strip #1), and DHFC Coach Bruce (strip #2)