Carl and Daniel competed today at Iowa Games! They both fenced well in pools, Daniel won his first 15-point bout, but unfortunately his next opponent was Carl. Their bout was close and well-fenced, and Carl won 15-13. Carl tied for 3rd, and Daniel finished 7th out of 13 epee fencers.

RDF sent 3 athletes to Summer Nationals in St. Louis this year; Jim, Jared, and Sarah each fenced two epee events, and Jared earned a medal! Here’s the recap:

Jim started us off on Sunday, July 1, fencing Div 1A Men’s Epee. He struggled a bit in pools, coming out 157th with 1 victory and 5 losses, but he made the cut and won his first 15-point direct elimination bout 15-8. His next bout was 29th seed and he went down 11-15, ending up 128th out of 197 competitors.

The next day, Jim was back for Vet-40 Men’s Epee. He did better in pools this time, going 3-3. He won his first direct elimination match (they only fence to 10 points in veterans events) decisively, 10-4. After that, he had a close match that was tied 8-8 when time ran out. In the priority minute, Jim’s opponent – the eventual winner of the event – scored a 9th touch and Jim finished 25th of 55.

On Tuesday, Jared fenced Div 2 Men’s Epee, his first time competing in epee at the national level (his primary weapon is foil, but he’s been fencing epee with us when he comes home from college). He fenced well in pools, coming out tied for 51st with 4 wins and 2 losses. He got a bye into the round of 128, where he won his first bout 15-10. Then he fenced 14th seed and lost 11-15, which put him 45th of 226 overall.

Sarah’s first event was Div 3 Women’s Epee on the 4th of July. One fencer in her pool dropped out due to injury, but Sarah won her other 5 pool bouts and was tied for 3rd thanks to a +20 indicator (“indicator” = touches scored – touches received). She won a string of direct elimination matches 15-6, 15-11, and 15-12 before losing 8-15 to 13th seed in the round of 16. She missed the medals by one place, ending 9th of 174.

Jared also fenced Div 2 Men’s Foil on Wednesday morning, representing the Des Moines Fencing Club, and finished 146th of 223.

Both Jared and Sarah fenced on Thursday, starting bright and early with Div 3 Men’s Epee at 8 am. Jared came out of pools 3-3, tied for 87th, but he stayed focused and battled back to upset 40th seed 15-12. He won his next direct elimination matches 15-11, 15-9, and 15-2 before going down 10-15 in the quarterfinals. He placed 8th of 183 and earned his first national medal!

In Div 2 Women’s Epee, Sarah swept her pool again and came out tied for 2nd seed. She won two bouts 15-11 and then lost 12-15 in the round of 32, finishing 17th of 159.

Full results: https://www.fencingtimelive.com/tournaments/eventSchedule/02669F3AE6FF4EDBA43449105CC3A0E1#today

Jim (right) scores a touch in Vet-40 Men’s Epee at Summer Nationals in St. Louis.

Sarah makes an attack in Div 2 Women’s Epee at Summer Nationals in St. Louis.

Jared earns the 8th place medal in Div 3 Men’s Epee at Summer Nationals in St. Louis.

Kevin coaches Jared in Div 2 Men’s Epee at Summer Nationals in St. Louis.

On Sunday, Jim placed 6th and Sarah finished 14th at a tournament at the Iowa City Fencing Center with a bit of an unusual format… (Full results: https://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=40084)

Normally, a tournament has two rounds: pools and direct elimination or “DE’s”. For the first round, they split everyone up into groups of 5-8, and each fencer fences everyone in their group (or pool) to 5 points. Based on how a fencer does in pools, they are then seeded into a direct elimination bracket (like March Madness) for the second round. All of the direct elimination bouts go to 15 points, and if you lose, you’re done – you’ve been knocked out.

At the Titanium Man, it’s one giant pool, and all of the bouts go to 15 points. There were 22 fencers this year, which meant that there had to be over 200 bouts fenced on 5 strips. We started fencing at 10:30 am and the last bout ended around 7:30 pm. It made for a long day, but it was good preparation for Summer Nationals!

Last weekend, two RDF fencers traveled to Minneapolis for the Minnesota Open. Jim finished 10th and Sarah ended 14th in Open Mixed Epee. Full results available here: https://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=37634.