Archive for January, 2007

It’s hard to believe that 2006 is over. It’s been a great year for Sarah and her fencing. It was her last year in the Y12 age category, and she really showed how hard work can pay off. She began 2006 traveling to Birmingham to fence in one of the Southeast RYCs where she finished 2nd and 3rd in Y12 and Y14 mixed foil, respectively. She then went on a traveling spree and fenced in two Super RYCs and the Youth NAC all within a month. She placed 2nd and 5th in the two SRYCs and 6th at the NAC in women’s Y12 foil. As one of the Moms of one of Sarah’s competitors and friend said, “It was nice to see a new face on the medal stand for once.” Sometimes with success comes pain. I know that Sarah would like to issue a word of caution to all young fencers since she injured her back during the NAC. The word of caution would be to STRETCH! It doesn’t matter if you are young or old, stretching plays a very important role for any competitive fencer. Sarah did not fence hard or competitively again until after a lot of therapy, advil and core muscle exercises (2½ months). She fenced in the Summer Nationals and placed 10th in women’s Y12 foil.

Starting in September, Sarah was out of the Y12 category, but now eligible for cadet and any of the open tournaments. She went to Memphis to fence in the Div II and Div III NAC where she placed 26th and 12th, respectively. In the Div III competition, Sarah lost to a very close friend, 15-13 to not get in the top 8, but winning isn’t always a priority. When you watch the two girls give each other a warm hug after the last touch, you know that our young fencers are learning more about life than just fencing. She finished tied for 3rd at the Longhorn open in Austin and 2nd at the Bayou City Fencing Academy “D and under” tournament. Recently at the NAC in Albuquerque, she came out of pools in the women’s Y14 foil seeded 56th and ended up placing in the top 16. Perseverance and hard work does pay off in the end.

Sarah just returned form the super RYC held in New Hampshire where she fenced in the women’s Y14 foil event which was a rated a B2 event. She did well in the pools coming out of them seeded 6th. She breezed through her first two Des 15 – 2 and 15 – 4, but to get in the top four, she was defeated 15-11 by the young lady who won the gold medal. To Sarah’s credit, no one else scored as many touches on the gold medal winner as Sarah did. Sarah ended up placing eighth which will help boost her National ranking. We hope to see her continue to do well this year.

Hello, I would like to share the experience that my teammates and I had at the Division III tournament at Bayou City Fencing Academy fencing foil on January 13, 2007. A Div III means that any fencer rated a D or under can compete in it. Any one who was born in 1993 or earlier can and is a D and under can participate.

In the pools, I started slowly, but did great. The first bout I won 5-3, and the next bout I did better, I won 5-2. The most memorable pool bout would have to be when I fenced Karalina Collins, a left-handed fencer who moved quickly. I managed to win, by doing a parry 6, then riposting. I remember couldn’t rush the bout, and I also remember that I had to do a feint disengage to get points on her when I decided to go on the offense. In that bout, I realized that I had to be more confident when attacking. In the end, I won all my pool bouts, and was seeded second. Sarah Followill was seeded 3rd, Gabriel Acuna was seeded 5th and Aldo Precciozzi was seeded 7th. Gabriel managed to get 1st in his pools, while Aldo and Sarah managed to get 2nd.

When the D.Es(Direct Eliminations) began, we all passed the 1st round. We were all in the top 16 now. I had to fence Thomas Cohen, who was seeded 15th, to advance the next round. I beat him by doing simple actions, such as beat attacks or beat disengage. Gabriel was up against Chris LaFargue, who was seeded 12, and Gabriel won in an impressive bout. Aldo had to fence Damien Bernstein, who was fencing both foil and sabre, Aldo won, using counterattacks to his advantage. Finally, Sarah unfortunately lost to Anna Tumlinson, who was a left handed fencer and was excellent at defending. Now Aldo, Gabriel and I were in the Top 8, and the winning would be much harder.

Unfortunately, Aldo and I had to fence this time. The bout was 4 to 1, and I began to lead until I was at 14. Amazingly, Aldo pulled a huge comeback, but time ran out, leaving the score at 14-12. Gabriel had to fence Nicholas Trant, a tricky fencer. I’m not sure what happened, as I was fencing, but Gabriel lost. Another bout I noticed was Karlina Collins against Robert Wooley. Robert had beaten Sarah in the pools, and had seeded 1st overall. Karalina was good, she moved very well, but she couldn’t beat Robert. So Robert advanced as well.

There were 4 left, Anna Tumlinson, Nicholas Trant, Robert Wooley, and me. I had to fence Anna Tumlinson, the girl who knocked Sarah out. Anna was a good defender, so Coach Marton advised me once I was in the lead, I should defend, because if she wanted to win she would have to attack. I did just that, when it was 4 to 3, I moved her around, but never attacked. I was putting pressure on her, as the time ticked away. I never lost my lead, for every time she scored a touch, I would get two. In the end, it was 15 to 10, with less than 10 seconds remaining. Robert won against Trant, but that is all I don’t know what happened.

Now, we were at the finals. Robert and I would duke it for 1st. The bout went slow; we moved back and forth, he managed to get the first touch. Every time I would score a touch, everyone would cheer for me, and that encouraged me. I don’t remember what happened during the 1st and 2nd period, but I do remember after 3 minutes it was 2-2 then after another 3 it was 4-4. This was going by slowly, very slowly. During the final-encounter, it was 5-5. We moved back, and forth, in a tempo. When I felt the time was right, I lunged, breaking the tempo, and it was too unexpected for him to do anything. 6-5. He knew he had to get a touch, and fast. He had to attack me, so he came a bit rushed, allowing me to parry riposte, giving me another point. It was now 7-5, and time ran out. I had won, and received my D rating. I was proud, and everyone was excited. We did well, I got 1st, Gabriel got 5th, Aldo 7th and Sarah 9th.

Now, it was time for the teams. Our team was Sarah, Aldo, Gabriel and I, we were seeded 1st, based on our results for the individual event. We got a bye, putting us in top 4 automatically out of 6 teams. After it was decided who we were going to fence, it turned out to be That One Group. The team consisted of Anthony Tierney, Steven Villarreal, Leonardo Barragan, and Cassandra Verret. In the end, the score was 45-16. Simple actions and patience is what we used to beat them.

The next bout was against the Graces, consisting of Michelle Ferrel, Hannah Jordan, Anna Tumlinson, and Alexandra Rose. We started with a strong lead, and Sarah got revenge on Anna by getting 5 touches with her only getting 1! With a lead of about 15 points, Anna comes back in, and gets their team about 12 points, but time ran out. After that, Gabriel did an outstanding job at beating Alexandra Rose without letting her score more than a single touch by doing a one-two. Then Sarah was up against Hannah Jordan, who Sarah managed to beat. Then I was in the final bout with Michelle Ferrell, I beat her by doing prise de fer’s ending it at 45-30.

So we won the gold, and some chocolate, and were very pleased with ourselves. We came back with great results, thanks to all our coaches, friends, fellow fners, and parents!