The Most Successful Summer Nationals Ever!
38 of Olympia’s fencers have attended the 2017 Summer Nationals and July Challenge, in Salt Lake City, UT!
The 10-day event called for an estimated 4,222 fencers from 47 states and 428 clubs. With 8,877 entries approved for the event, the tournament is billed as the largest fencing tournament in history.
Olympia’s fencers took part in 29 fencing events, both epee and foil weapons, during the ten days of competition.
The USFA 2017 recipient for Excellence in Club Membership Award, Olympia Fencing Center is proud to announce this event as the most successful so far in our young club’s history, surpassing many fencing clubs in the country.
Olympia’s fencers bring home a total of 11 medals!
Our club epeeists and foilists, assisted by coaches Daniel Hondor (epee) and Kai Zhao (foil), have fenced for TEN straight days.
Here is the breakdown of the medals, by events:
Div lA Men’s Epee
Jonas Hansen takes the Gold medal, among 163 participants.
Cadet Women’s Epee and Y14 Women’s Epee
Greta Candreva earns 1st place in both competitions.
Junior Women’s Epee 
15 years old Emily Vermeule takes the Silver medal, among 193 best junior girls in the country.
Cadet Men’s Epee
Hunter Candreva, 2nd place, in a pool of 162 participants.
Alongside Hunter, another five Olympia fencers made top 64.
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Div lll Men’s Foil
Diran Jimenez, 5th place.
Y14 Men’s Epee
David Leigh, 6th place, in his first summer national competition among 197 fencers.
Y12 Men’s Foil
Daniel Zhang, 7th in a pool of 208 participants.
Div IA Women’s Epee
Isabel Kain, 7th among 118 participants
Becca Barnes comes in 15th (one touch away from entering top 8)
Lori Schmidt finishes 26th.
Div ll Women’s Epee
Jiayi Ruan takes 7th place and renewed her C rating.
Vet 40 Women’s Epee
Eva Heinrich takes 8th place, best results of NE Division and earned her E rating.
For more photos from this prestigious event, please check out our Facebook album, Summer nationals 2017!
Other notable results
Senior Team Men’s Epee
Olympia’s boys team: Hondor, Corban, Candreva, places 11th among 48 teams.
Y10 Women’s Foil
Lydia Shen, 14th.
Y12 Men’s Epee
Spencer Vermeule comes in 15th, best result of NE Division, among 118 participants.
Tony Whelan places 31st.
Y10 Men’s Foil
Andrew Gu also finishes 15th, among 124 fencers, also recorded as the best results in the NE Division.
All six Olympia foilists make top 32 in this event.
Cadet Men’s Foil
12 years old Daniel Zhang takes 13the place among 202 fencers, and earned his B rating, making him the youngest foilist ever to have a B rating!!
Junior Men’s Epee
Robert Hondor finishes 17th (losing by one touch for top 16),
Jonas Hansen finishes 21st, in the same competition. Both fencers record best results in the NE Division.
Robert also places 23rd in Div l Men’s Epee, among 121 fencers..
Div ll Men’s Foil
Adam Yang, 32nd and Paul Gaudet, 64th.
Junior Men’s Foil
Paul Gaudet, 62nd among 268 fencers.
CONGRATULATIONS – to the four Olympia fencers honored in Salt Lake City, for their fencing AND academic achievements!
David Leigh, Jonas Hansen, Becca Barnes and Sammy Shortall – all made the First Team!
The All-Academic Ceremony included the recognition of 466 athletes who received achieved a GPA of 3.5 or higher:
- First Team: 3.85 or higher
- 398 Athletes
- Second Team: 3.7 – 3.84
- 48 Athletes
- Honorable Mention: 3.5 – 3.69
- 20 Athletes
Our thanks go, most of all, to the parents, for their great support and understanding, of both their children and coaches.
You all make our job easier and help us give our students our undivided attention during times of pressure and need to focus!
More thanks to all our coaches: Shuang Meng and Kai Zhao, Lori Schmidt, Elliott Chorn, our director and founder, Daniel Hondor, for their passion and dedication, to teach and support our fencers to achieve their highest potential, and make Olympia one of the most successful fencing clubs in the country!
Go, Olympia!
We Raise Champions!