We took our brand new fencing club from the local high school to a very large midwest fencing tournament yesterday.
The Culver Fencing tournament, at the Culver Military Academy, is probably the hardest event for high school fencers in the midwest, other than the junior olympic trials. Schools and fencing clubs from all over the midwest come to the event and it had some of the finest fencing I've seen in quite a while on display.
Then there was the Lowell Red Devils team. We didn't do so well.
I think I mentally prepared the kids for this event, it is just not where they should have been fencing, but it is a great event to experience even if you get slaughtered, eviseratetd and vivisected on the strip. And they did. We had a couple highlights. Jodie, my freshman girl saber fencer was in her direct elimination round, came back from behind, still lost the bout, but the final score was 14-15. She did great, and she was fencing a much more experienced fencer so there was no shame in that loss.
Some of my saber boys took home "victories" in the fact that they didn't get ''shut out" with '0' scores. The boys fencing at this event is astounding. I felt badly for one of my saber boys, Forest, as he faced one of the top competitors in the tournament and lost 1-15. It was good that he got the 1. In fact I think that surprised everyone who watched. The guy who bent, spindled and mutilated him went on to take an award at the end, not sure if he finished 1st or 2nd place as we didn't stay to watch the awards at the end, but that kid would have easily beaten my coach, who taught me. So Forest had no chance against him.
Of my other 3 boy Saber fencers, Max, Alex and Cameron, all faired a bit better. Alex was in the toughest pool of the event and considered any score to be a victory. He had fun, probably learned some things. Max and Cameron both were pummeled too, but both here happy with their little victories when they scored a touch against a superior opponent.
The Lowell Foil fencers didn't really fare any better. One of our girls, Bailey, made it up to the second round of the direct elimination bouts. Two others, faced each other in the first round, so we had 1 of our girls defeat another and knock her out. Oh well.
On the bright side, one of our club fencers from the Northwest Indiana Fencing Club in St John took home a 3rd place medal from the event.
Charlie is a senior at a high school a couple towns north of Lowell, he is sort of adopted by our team as he has helped our saber fencers many times, and probably the best fencer at the local fencing club. It was great to see him take home a medal from such a tough event with so many other very accomplished competitors.
Photo below is Charlie taking the 3rd place spot.
The Culver Fencing tournament, at the Culver Military Academy, is probably the hardest event for high school fencers in the midwest, other than the junior olympic trials. Schools and fencing clubs from all over the midwest come to the event and it had some of the finest fencing I've seen in quite a while on display.
Then there was the Lowell Red Devils team. We didn't do so well.
I think I mentally prepared the kids for this event, it is just not where they should have been fencing, but it is a great event to experience even if you get slaughtered, eviseratetd and vivisected on the strip. And they did. We had a couple highlights. Jodie, my freshman girl saber fencer was in her direct elimination round, came back from behind, still lost the bout, but the final score was 14-15. She did great, and she was fencing a much more experienced fencer so there was no shame in that loss.
Some of my saber boys took home "victories" in the fact that they didn't get ''shut out" with '0' scores. The boys fencing at this event is astounding. I felt badly for one of my saber boys, Forest, as he faced one of the top competitors in the tournament and lost 1-15. It was good that he got the 1. In fact I think that surprised everyone who watched. The guy who bent, spindled and mutilated him went on to take an award at the end, not sure if he finished 1st or 2nd place as we didn't stay to watch the awards at the end, but that kid would have easily beaten my coach, who taught me. So Forest had no chance against him.
Of my other 3 boy Saber fencers, Max, Alex and Cameron, all faired a bit better. Alex was in the toughest pool of the event and considered any score to be a victory. He had fun, probably learned some things. Max and Cameron both were pummeled too, but both here happy with their little victories when they scored a touch against a superior opponent.
The Lowell Foil fencers didn't really fare any better. One of our girls, Bailey, made it up to the second round of the direct elimination bouts. Two others, faced each other in the first round, so we had 1 of our girls defeat another and knock her out. Oh well.
On the bright side, one of our club fencers from the Northwest Indiana Fencing Club in St John took home a 3rd place medal from the event.
Charlie is a senior at a high school a couple towns north of Lowell, he is sort of adopted by our team as he has helped our saber fencers many times, and probably the best fencer at the local fencing club. It was great to see him take home a medal from such a tough event with so many other very accomplished competitors.
Photo below is Charlie taking the 3rd place spot.
