Last weekend, RDF hosted our annual Equinox Epee tournament at Valley Southwoods Freshman High School in West Des Moines. We’d like to thank all the athletes, parents, referees, and set-up/tear down volunteers for helping us make this our best Equinox Epee tournament yet!

Besides fencers from around the Midwest, we had 15 of our own fencers competing across 5 events. Full results are available here, but these are the RDF highlights:

Y10 Mixed Epee:
2nd – Henry
3rd (tie) – Harper and Graham

Y12 Mixed Epee:
3rd (tie) – Henry and Weston
5th – Evan
6th – Graham

Y14 Mixed Epee:
3rd – Nick
5th – Daniel
6th – Lily
7th – Kaden
8th – Winnie

D & Under Mixed Epee:
6th – Carl
14th – Nick
16th – Daniel A.
23rd – Daniel M.
31st – Kaden
32nd – Alex
33rd – Lily

Senior Mixed Epee:
3rd – Jim
22nd – Sarah
28th – Carl

Y10 Medalists

D & Under Medalists

Y14 Medalists

Y12 Medalists

Open Medalists

This past weekend, Jim and Sarah traveled to Kansas City to compete at the HFA Regional Open Circuit tournament. Jim finished 7th in Senior Men’s Epee, which qualifies him for Div 1A at Summer Nationals. Sarah tied for 3rd in Senior Women’s Epee on Saturday, and then she ended 2nd in C & Under WE on Sunday, which qualifies her for Div 2 & 3 at Summer Nationals. Full results: https://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=37687.

Yesterday RDF fencers Carl and Alex competed at Iowa State University’s Frosty Open in Ames. Alex won his first direct elimination (15-point) bout at a tournament and finished 7th, and Carl ended 11th. Full results: https://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=39281

Four RDF fencers competed at the Icicle Invitational in Lincoln, NE on Sunday. In Mixed Epee, Jim finished 7th, Sarah ended 14th, Julia was 22nd, and Nick placed 26th. In Women’s Epee, Sarah and Julia tied for 3rd. Thanks to LFC for hosting a great event! Full results: https://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=37996

Last weekend, RDF fencer Lily traveled to Austin, TX for the Austin Challenge SYC/RCC tournament. It was a bit of a rough trip travel-wise (including getting stranded in Atlanta when they lost power!), but Lily met her goals of staying focused and sticking to the plan and finished 33rd in Y14 Women’s Epee. Full results: https://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=37271#147211

On Sunday, we ran an invite-only “training tournament” for fencers who compete in Division I (C-rated & up) events (or are working up to it). We decide the format the day of, depending on who is there and what they want to work on, and then we record all the bouts for review by the group afterwards. This was probably a broader skill range than we’ve had in the past, but it was especially helpful to have the stronger fencers’ feedback during the video review portion. We watched and critiqued at least one video of every fencer, and everyone has links to the full collection. We really appreciate everyone coming out and fencing with us!

Results: https://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=38655

On Saturday, we held a fun tournament for our club members ages 14 & under. Kids and parents who had never been to a tournament before learned how a tournament works and what to expect in a familiar, no-pressure environment. We split the group into an older event and a younger event. Results are available here: https://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=39266. Everyone displayed excellent sportsmanship and we saw some really well-fenced bouts. The kids enjoyed the competitive challenge and edible medals!