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North American CupAlbuquerque, NMNovember 10-13, 2006
Alliance Fencing Academy had an excellent second NAC tournament this season. Thirteen fencers went to Albuquerque to fence in seven different events in junior, cadet, youth 14 epee and foil, men and women. Andrey Geva as usual spent the customary four days starting at 7 am and ending in the evening with pleasant team dinners and gatherings with our fencers and their families. Alliance fencers returned to Houston with seven final medals.
Congratulation to our medallists!!!
Ferguson, Max - Gold Medal, Youth 14 Men's Epee Bassa, Francesca - Bronze Medal, Cadet Women's Epee Brandfield-Harvey, Neely - 5 place, Cadet Women's Epee - 6 place, Junior, Women's Epee Freiman, Ben - 6 place, Youth 14 Men's Epee Bazarbayeva, Dina - 7 place, Cadet Women's Epee Sorensen, Nathan - 7 place, Cadet Men's Epee
Youth 14 Men’s Epee
67 fencers, C3 event
Alliance fencers in this event were: Max
Ferguson, Ben Freiman, and Jack Hudson. Max dominated
his pools by scoring 30 touches and receiving only 3 touches in 6 bouts
with what must be a record indicator of +27! Ben, with 5-1 victories
also finished foirst in his pool with an indicator of +17. Jack, with a
3-2 victories did well also. After pools Max was #1, Ben #9 and Jack #29
in a field of 67 fencers. For top 16, Jack lost his DE 14-15 to Gavin
Medley who will finish 5th. Next time we know he’ll do better and Jack
is still competing in Youth 12. Ben and Max both continued by winning
their bouts and making to final eight. Here Ben and Max had to face each
other in the quarter finals and Ben lost to his friend Max. Max won his
next two bouts comfortably and earned the gold medal. Final placement:
1 Ferguson Magnus K GULFCST TX
C2005 Cadet Men’s Epee
143 fencers, A4 event
We had five fencers in this strong event: Max
Ferguson, Ben Freiman, Jack Hudson, Pietro
Sanfilippo, and Nathan Sorensen. In the first DE to 64, Ben
lost 7-15, while Pietro and Nathan won handily their first DE, and Max
had a bye. The next DE to 32, Max won easily, but Pietro and Nathan had
to fight for the spot in top 32 with Nathan winning 15-12. It was most
unfortunate for our two friends to have to fence each other so early.
When repêchage started, Nathan lost his first bout 14-15 and Max his
11-15. The next round was not favorable to Max who lost 8-15, while
Nathan won his 15-7. Nathan won the next three bouts 15-11, 15-7, and
15-9, which landed him with the finalists. In the quarter finals Nathan
lost 13-15 to Joshua Dolezal, the eventual winner of this competition.
1 Dolezal Joshua M INDIANA A2006
Cadet Women’s Epee
99 fencers, A3 event
Three girls represented Alliance Fencing Academy:
Francesca Bassa, Dina Bazarbayeva, and Neely Brandfield-Harvey.
After the round of pools all three girls had a bye and all three won the
first DE to top 32 comfortably: Neely 15-3, Francesca 15-4, and Dina
15-6. In repêchage, Neely took the straight path to the finalist.
Francesca and Dina took the longer way with a victory and a loss but
winning the next three bouts to join Neely in the final eight. The next
round Francesca took revenge on Barrette who had beaten her in the
second repêchage by winning 15-13 and making the semifinals.
Unfortunately Neely lost 13-14 to Susie Scanlan, and Dina 8-15 to
Courtney Hurley. In the semifinals Francesca fenced against Courtney
Hurley for the first time since her return from her injury and started
great by being up 4-0 against the current top US woman epeeist, but in
the end she lost 13-15. This was a good performance by our three girls
who made all to the podium. Final placement:
1 Hurley Courtney L SO. TEXAS A2006 Cadet Women’s Foil
112 fencers, A4 event Kara Collins and Nicola Horscroft represented Alliance at this event. Both our girls have been fencing for a very short time and were facing a tough competition with girls who have been around for several years. Kara barely missed the cut after pools and Nicola made it, but lost her first DE. Nicola and Kara took 90th and 93d places respectively.
With more experience and exposure to national
tournaments both our girls will do better and we are proud of them for
their courage and dedication. Foil fencers start below the age of 10, so
here our two girls had to fight with fencers having 5 years or more
experience in national and international competitions. Your results will
come also! Junior Men’s Epee
203 fencers, A4 event This was a very strong first junior event of the season which attracted 61 A, 49 B, 45 C, 16 D, 14 E, and 18 U rated fencers. Alliance was represented by six epeeists: John Bone, Max Ferguson, Pietro Sanfilippo, Dillon Smith, Nathan Sorensen, and Daniel Trapani. After the first round of pools, Daniel was tied for 1st place, and Dillon was tied for 12th. In the DE rounds to top 32, Daniel, Dillon, and Max had a bye and won easily the next two. Pietro had a bye, won the first DE but fell short on the next one. Our three remaining fencers started the repêchage by losing their first bout, but winning the next one easily. The following bout in repêchage, Daniel won easily 15-7, Dillon lost by just one point (14-15) to one of the top Canadian fencers Igor Gantsevich, and Max who still competes in Youth 14, ran out of steam against a very experienced Brent Kelly who also put a stop to Daniel’s progression into the finals in the following bout. We are very proud of all our fencers who gave their best in this top national competition. It is easy to see how our guys could have all made even better results and how they acquitted themselves with honor. Max is still a Youth 14, Natahn and Pietro are both cadets. John was at his first very competitive tournament in junior, and he has been fencing much less than our more experienced athletes. Daniel and Dillon showed everyone the caliber of their fencing which is just there at the top level nationally.
Final standings of this very exciting event: Junior Women’s Epee
134 fencer, A4 event
In this event Alliance lined up 4 fencers:
Francesca Bassa, Dina Bazarbayeva, Neely Brandfield-Harvey,
and Erin Pytel. This was another strong event with 22 A, 26 B, 28
C, 24 E, and 23 U rated fencers. In the first round of pools Neely and
Dina sailed through with all wins. Francesca had a rough start still
under her fears for her old leg injury which seemed to act up un her at
the beginning. She made the cut with a 3-3 record. Erin, at her first
national junior event earned valuable experience but she did not make
the cut. In the DE for top 32, Neely and Dina had a bye and an easy win
each. Francesca in her first DE beat the cadet silver medallist Juleah
Nusz 15-14 and in the next DE against Keri Byerts, she lost 13-15,
showing that she had almost managed a complete recovery from her earlier
blues. In the repêchage, Neely won her first two bouts easily but lost
to Courtney Hurley 10-15. Dina lost her first bout to Brita Goldie of
Canada 13-15 but then won her next three bouts 15-13, defeating Tess
Finkel and Kristin Howell, two very strong and experienced national
fencers. This lead to the bout between Dina and Neely to enter the
finals, which Neely won 15-12. In the quarter finals Neely lost to
Christa French 9-10.
1 Hurley Kelley A SO.
TEXAS A2006
Junior Women’s Foil
137 fencers, A4 event
This was another very strong event and we had our
courageous and dedicated foil fencers, Kara Collins and Nicola
Horscroft to represent our club. This even had 29 A, 28 B, 37C, 18
D, 11 E, and 14 U rated fencers. Both our girls are still cadets and
both are very “young” in fencing exposure to this type of national
competition and were seeded before the competition Nicola #121 and Kara
# 136 out of 137 fencers. They did not make the cut after pools but the
final standings showed an improvement form their seeding: Nicola took
115th place, and Kara - 125th.
Traveling Notes: Albuquerque, NM, is a nice place but the climate is the opposite of Houston in terms of humidity… they just have none! On the plus side, the fencers’ perspiration evaporates quickly (don’t forget to keep hydrated!) and on the negative side we were almost a mile above sea level, so there was some adjustment for the endurance of our Houston fencers.
As usual we all enjoyed the time spent together in
the après fencing entertainment, with team dinner and running around
during the off day supporting our friends at the club and visiting with
all our friends from around the country. This is what makes fun to go to
national competitions…
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