Olympic sport of fencing in Des Moines, Iowa
Learn to Fence
While in Minneapolis this weekend, Ben fenced in the Youth Athos Challenge tournament. He was 5th in Y14 and 2nd in Y12. It was a long day, but he fenced especially well in his Y14 DE.
Full results: https://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=44272
RDF sent one fencer to the October NAC in Kansas City Last weekend. Sarah was 183rd of 185 in Division 1 Women’s Epee and placed 12th of 91 in Division 2 Women’s Epee, which qualifies her for the same event at Summer National Championships. Full results: https://www.usafencing.org/2019-oct-nac-results
Last weekend, Sarah fenced Div 1A Women’s Epee at the Remenyik Regional Open Circuit tournament at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. She finished 42nd of 52. Full results here.
Last Saturday, we held our season kick-off tournament at the club. We had 7 fencers, so everyone fenced one event in order to get more practice (because an event of 3 people isn’t terribly fun), but we gave awards separately to the older and younger kids. We saw a lot of great fencing and learned some valuable lessons! Thanks to all of our participants and supporters!
This year, the Cornhusker State Games was opened to fencers from other states, so 3 RDF athletes traveled to Nebraska to compete on Friday! The location – a shopping mall – was a bit unconventional, but it was kind of fun to have an audience of passers-by. In Y10 Epee, Graham tied for 3rd, and then he earned the silver medal in Y12. Weston fenced Y14 and tied for 3rd. In Cadet, Weston was 2nd and Jazz finished 5th.
Daniel and Nick also attempted to fence in the epee event at Iowa Games this weekend, but partway through pools, a large chunk of the city of Ames – including the Beyer Hall gym – lost power, so the tournament was canceled!
Four RDF fencers and Coach Kevin traveled to Columbus, OH for USA Fencing’s Summer National Championships last week.
On Saturday, Sarah fenced Div 1A Women’s Epee. She was a bit disappointed with her pool round performance (1-5) and did not make the cut into the Direct Elimination round, ending 107th of 126.
Next, on Sunday, Cheryl fenced Vet 40 Women’s Epee at her first national-level tournament. She got in her own head a little and ended 25th of 25. While Cheryl was fencing, Sarah refereed Vet 60 WE and Junior ME. She also refereed a couple events on Monday.
Brothers Evan and Jared took the strip in Div 2 Men’s Epee on Wednesday. Jared placed 54th, and Evan tied for 154th of 239 in his first national-level event. Sarah had a long day of refereeing.
Cheryl fenced again Thursday afternoon, this time in Div 3 WE. She was tied for 128th after pools, but lost a close DE match to a fencer from the Twin Cities Fencing Club, ending 136th of 179.
Friday was a busy day with Sarah fencing in Div 2 WE and Evan and Jared in Div 3 ME. Sarah went 5-0 in pools to be seeded 4th, but lost in the round of 64, ending 34th of 179. Evan was 1-5 out of pools, just one touch away from making the cut into the DE round, so he ended up 163rd of 197. Jared was 5-1 out of pools and won a string of 15-point matches, before finally going out in the semifinals after several weapon issues. He tied for 3rd, took home a bronze medal, and earned his C19 rating!
Full results: https://www.usafencing.org/2019-champ-julychal-results
Last Sunday, Evan and Sarah traveled to Iowa City to fencing the Titanium Man Epee tournament. It’s called this because it’s a little more intensive than most tournament formats – normally there is one round of 4-7 five-point bouts and then 15-point bouts until you lose, but here you fence everyone to 15 points. Sarah dropped out, but Evan finished 12th and was very tired the next day.
Full results: https://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=42948&FREDSID=onku6oqqt0v2cn7m6g03b3srn7
We have a few irregularities in our summer schedule, too!
Saturday, June 29-Saturday, July 6 – CLOSED – Coaches Kevin and Sarah will both be in Columbus, OH for Summer Nationals
No practice on Wednesdays and Saturdays in July – we will have our regular youth and teen/adult practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays
July 31-Aug. 2 – Youth Epee Camp with guest coach Gary Copeland of Northern Colorado Fencers
No youth practice Thurdsday, Aug. 1 (because camp) We will have teen/adult practice at the regular time.
We know summer schedules can be irregular, so we’re introducing a new option for the summer: punch cards! Valid June 1-Aug. 31, cards are now available for purchase at the club. One 10-punch card is $100. It’s one punch per practice session, and cards may be shared between family members. Punch cards are not valid for beginner classes.
Regular monthly membership is, of course, still available and is a better option for those who plan to come regularly throughout the summer.
Today was our May Youth Tournament! We had 7 fencers in Junior/Y14 and 8 in Y12/Y10 Mixed Epee, from RDF and the Des Moines Fencing Club. It was the first epee tournament for several kids, and good practice for everyone. There some excellent fencing and we were especially happy to see a fencer cheer on a new teammate who was having a bit of a rough day. Thanks to all who attended!
Full results: https://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=43569
