Last weekend, six RDF fencers competed in the Cornhusker Games at Gateway Mall in Lincoln, NE. Since there was no fencing at Iowa Games this year, we could go compete in a different State Games.
Ben started us off strong on Friday, winning the Y12 epee event. In E & Under Epee on Saturday, Mat took the silver medal and Tasha won bronze. In Open Epee, Mat was 6th, Sarah was 9th, Jack finished 11th, and Tasha came in 12th on Sunday. Also on Sunday was Women’s Epee, where Sarah won the gold medal, Ava took silver, and Tasha finished 5th and won the Sportsmanship Award!
Y12 Epee medalists – congratulations to Ben on his gold medal!
On Saturday, we held the Happy Squid Unrated Tournament at our club. “Unrated” means it was only open to fencers who have not yet earned a rating (also sometimes called classification) from competing in USA Fencing tournaments. (Full chart here.) Nine fencers competed and the winner (Ben from Center for Blade Arts in Minneapolis) earned his “E” classification. From RDF, Alex ended 2nd in a close 15-14 match, Ava and Jack tied for 3rd, Darren was 6th, and Campbell finished 7th.
Last Saturday was our fun little in-club youth tournament! In Y12 Mixed Epee, Ben won and Kalina was 2nd. In Y14 Mixed Epee, Ben was our champion, Chantal was 2nd, Sophia came in 3rd, and Alexis finished 4th. With such limited opportunities for competition this past year, it was good to practice being in a competitive situation and mindset again or, for some, the first time!
Last weekend, fencers from around the state and a few from neighboring states joined us for the Duel in Des Moines, which we jointly hosted with the Des Moines Fencing Club. They ran the foil and saber events in the gym at Fairmeadows Elementary and we ran the epee events outdoors in the parking lot. Full results are available here on askfred: https://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=47752.
In Open Mixed Epee, Daniel was 2nd, Sarah tied for 3rd, Evan placed 5th, Nick finished 8th, and Ava was 10th.
In Cadet Mixed Epee, Ava earned the gold after a close 15-13 match with Jack, who took home silver. In his first ever tournament, Ben placed 6th, and Campbell – in his first tournament outside the club – finished 7th.
In Unrated Mixed Epee, Jack earned his 2nd silver medal of the weekend, Steve tied for 3rd, Campbell was 5th, Ava finished 6th, and Cindy was 7th.
Everyone fenced hard, learned some good things, and has a lot to be proud of. We especially liked seeing the growth of several of our fencers who used to get very discouraged by a tough loss in pools. This time, they were able to shake off those bouts and get back on track mentally – a really important skill in fencing!
Although traditionally summer tends to be sparse for tournaments (most people are training for summer nationals in July, and after that they take a break or scale back), we are planning on hosting some more small tournaments at the club this summer, and the new fencing season starts in August.
On Saturday, 3 RDF fencers competed in Y-14 Epee at the Jack-O-Lantern Tournament at the old Franklin Jr. High. Ben tied for 3rd, Jocelyn finished 5th, and Cruz finished 6th. It was the first tournament for both Jocelyn and Cruz!
We finally got to have our (now not accurately named) Equinox Epee tournament the second weekend of October! It was a little smaller than usual, with 30 individual fencers participating in 4 events, but everyone was grateful for a chance to compete even though the circumstances were less-than-ideal. The tournament was held outdoors in the parking lot at Hillside Elementary, and everyone did a great job wearing their masks, keeping their distance from others, and not shaking hands! Thank you to everyone who helped make this event possible!
In Open Mixed Epee, Evan tied for 3rd, Nick was 7th, Alex was 9th, with Daniel right behind in 10th. In Women’s Epee, Sarah tied for 3rd. In Div 3 (D & Under) Mixed Epee, Evan took home the silver medal, Daniel tied for 3rd, Alex came in 7th, Nick took 10th, Weston was 11th, and Rilee was 16th. In Cadet Mixed Epee, Jack tied for 3rd and Weston was 5th. We think everyone’s hard work in lessons and practice over the last 6 months showed!
Also congratulations to RDF fencers Evan on earning his C, Daniel on earning his E, and Nick on renewing his E!
Alrighty, folks, the swords have spoken and we’re predicting Pete Buttigieg will win the Iowa caucus on Feb. 3 (even though technically the fencer representing John Delaney won the tournament – Delaney dropped out of the race yesterday)! Tied for 3rd was Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar! Then we had Tom Steyer, Michael Bennet, Joe Biden, Deval Patrick, Andrew Yang, and Bernie Sanders.
Thank you to all the campaigns that donated items to decorate our wall and our fencers! Thanks to the fencers for coming out to represent a randomly-drawn candidate! We had a lot of fun fencing to predict a caucus winner and it was nice to briefly lighten the seriousness of political issues.
Remember to caucus on Monday, Feb. 3 and good luck to all of the actual candidates!
Sarah, Cheryl, and Jared (now in grad school in Omaha) competed at the Icicle Invitational in Lincoln, NE today. In Mixed Epee, Jared finished 8th and renewed his C rating, and Sarah came in 9th. In Women’s Epee, Cheryl finished 6th.
Today, we held an E & Under tournament at the club. (“E” is the first level of classification or rating a fencer can earn in USA Fencing’s system [the highest being “A”], and is a rough approximation of skill/experience.) This means entries are limited to fencers who have an E rating or are unrated (U).
Five of our fencers competed; Daniel A. earned the silver medal, Lance tied for 3rd, Alex was 5th, Selathiel came in 13th in his first real (sanctioned) tournament, and Weston finished 14th. We saw a lot of close bouts, good sportsmanship, and nice fencing.
Thank you to all of the fencers, families, referees, and coaches from around Iowa, Nebraska, and Minnesota who came out and made it a great event! Special congratulations to Srikanth, from the Omaha Fencing Club, who earned his E20 rating!
