Olympia Fencers Bring Home Medals From St. Louis
St. Louis, MO
June 28 – July 7. 2018
Over 4,000 athletes have competed for national titles in St. Louis, at the 2018 Summer Nationals and July Challenge, according to the US Fencing Association website.
The 10-day event (June 28 – July 7) brought competitors from throughout the nation to St. Louis, where the best fencers in the United States have participated in individual and team competitions, in age groups for athletes ages 8 – 80+, with 60 titles on the line and all three fencing disciplines (epee, foil and saber) contested for both men and women, individual and teams.
A tournament open to athletes around the world, the July Challenge was the final competition held in the United States before Team USA leaves to compete in the 2018 Senior World Championships in Wuxi, China. The July Challenge included Division I, Junior, Cadet and Senior Team events.
Olympia fencers, big and small, have brought home four medals (two silver and two top 8), and placed numerous times in top 16, 32 and 64, among hundreds of competitors.
Here is the list with the complete results of our fencers participants at the competition and here are best top 64 results
Junior Women’s Epee
Emily Vermeule, 2nd
Division I WE
Emily Vermeule – 17th
Isabel Kain – 24th
Div I Men’s Epee
Robert Hondor – 24th
Division IA ME
Michael Corban – 26th
Y12 Men’s Epee
Jaemin Feldman – 15th
Cadet Men’s Epee
Gabriel Feinberg – 28th
David Leigh – 31st
Y14 Men’s Epee
Spencer Vermeule – 10th
Gabriel Feinberg – 17th
Y12 Women’s Epee
Ava Wade-Currie – 11th
Vet 50 Women’s Epee
Natalia Stavisky – 17th
Y10 Women’s Epee
Linden Zheng – 8th
Phoebe Chisholm – 33rd
Juniors Men’s Epee
Gabriel Feinberg, 42nd
(among 322 participants)
Div IA Women’s Epee
Isabel Kain, 35th
Vet 40 Women’s Epee
Eva Heinrich – 16th
Angelica Brisk – 20th
Foil results
Division II Men’s Foil
Diran Jimenez – 15th
(among 222)
Division IA WF
Sammy Shortall – 32nd
Cadet Men’s Foil
Daniel Zhang – 25th (among 258 fencers)
Division IA Men’s Foil
Adam Yang – 30th
Y12 Men’s Foil
Castor Kao – 28th
(best result in the NE Division)
Samuel Du, 38th
Y10 Women’s Foil
Lydia Shen, 5th
Y14 Men’s Foil
Daniel Zhang – 2nd
Y12 Women’s Foil
Sophia Shen – 14th
Div II Women’s Foil
Sammy Shortall, 11th
(best result in the NE Division)
Division IA Men’s Foil
Adam Yang – 30th
Junior Men’s Foil
Paul Gaudet, 48t
h
In the teams events, Olympia’s epee Men’s Team (Hondor, Hansen, Vermeule, Zheng) finished 17th our of 57 teams, and the foil Men’s Team (Chestna, Gaudet, Zhang, Yang) – 19th of 39 teams.
As some of our students outgrew the youth age levels and moved on to more advanced ones, many of them fenced higher levels for the first time and still got some great results.
Congratulations to first time competitors to the summer nationals this year: épéeists Jaemin Feldman and Phoebe Chisholm, and foil competitors: Eric Li, Andrew Gu, Alexander Wu and Angel Liu. They all managed to make top 32 or 64 in their age group events, among hundred of participants!
As a conclusion to their results, Olympia students secured best spots in the national rolling points among any clubs in the New England Division!
Y10 Women’s Foil, Lydia Shen, #2
Y12 Women’s Epee: Ava Wade #2
Juniors Women’s Epee: Emily Vermeule, #3
Vet 40 Women’s Epee: Angelica Brisk, #4
Y10 Men’s Epee: Jordan Macarty, 7th
Y12 Women’s Foil: Sophia Shen, 9th place
Y14 Men’s Foil: Daniel Zhang 10 pl.
Vet 40 Women’s Epee: Eva Heinrich – 11th
Senior Women’s Epee: Emily Vermeule #15 and #13 in teams
Y14 Men’s Epee: Gabriel Feinberg 10th, Spencer Vermeule, 15th
Junior Men’s Epee: Robert Hondor, 17th
Y10 Men’s Foil: Andrew Gu, 17th
Y10 Women’s Epee: Phoebe Chisholm, 18th
Vet 40 Men’s Epee: Kevin Foley, 20th
Vet 50 Women’s Epee – Natalia Stavisky, #21
Y12 Men’s Epee: Jaemin Feldman, #22
Cadet Men’s Epee: Gabriel Feinberg, 25th and Hagen Zheng, 26th
Cadet Men’s Foil: Daniel Zhang, 28th
Y14 Women’s Epee: Ava Wade 29th
Senior Women’s Epee: Isabel Kain, 30st
Senior Men’s Epee Teams, Robert Hondor #33 (best result held by a fencer in the NE Division)
Robert ranks 43rd in Seniors Men’s Epee, also best result of the NE Division.
Y12 Men’s Foil: Samuel Du, 39 (best in New England)
Cadet Women’s Epee: Ava Wade, #64
Junior Men’s Foil: Paul Gaudet, #68
As previously noted, these results, with a very few exceptions, are the best results obtained nationally by a fencer in the New England Division. This means that our club is keeping up its good reputation and results, for yet another year since being founded, in 2012, as a top club with top results!
We’d like to congratulate everyone: participants, medalists, coaches, and to extend our gratification to the parents, for their support and encouragement!
Jonas Hansen, Kevin Liu and Sammy Shortall make the 2017-2018 USA Fencing First Academic Team!
The 2018 All-Academic Celebration has been held on July 2, 2018, inside the Amercia’s Center Convention hall.
USA Fencing and Absolute Fencing Gear have once again partnered to recognize young fencers who have excelled in high school with All-Academic Team honors.
Athletes with a GPA of at least 3.85 (94 or better) are eligible to be named to the First All-Academic Team. Second Team athletes include those whose GPAs are 3.7 – 3.84 (87 to 93). Athletes with 3.5 – 3.69 GPAs (80-86) are recognized on the Honorable Mention Team. In addition to GPA, class rank (where applicable) is reviewed. Only traditional core academic classes will be considered when evaluating transcripts of applicants that are on the border of one team to another.
Absolute Fencing Gear has also pledged $10,000 in scholarships for the All-Academic Team program. One female and one male applicant will receive $4,000 each based on both their GPA and essay. Two additional applicants received $1,000 each based on their submitted essay.
Olympia students: epee fencer Jonas Hansen and foil fencers, Kevin Liu and Sammy Shortall, make the First Academic Team, and Jonas, (2018 Cadet World Team Member) also wins the $1,000 Absolute Fencing Gear Scholarship.
Congratulations to all!
USA Fencing Announces Host Cities for 2018-19 National Events
The 2019 Summer Nationals and July Challenge will be held again in Columbus, OH, at the Greater Columbus Convention Center.
The road to Columbus will kick off the 2018-19 season with the October North American Cup in Milwaukee, WI (Division I, Division II, cadet and wheelchair events), followed by November NAC , in Kansas City, MO (junior, cadet and Y14).
December NAC will be held in Cincinnati, OH, (Division I, Division II, veteran and senior team).
January NAC comes to the Charlotte Convention Center, in NC (domestic qualifier for the 2019 Senior, Junior and Cadet World Championship Teams, and will include Division I, junior, senior team and wheelchair competitions).
Denver, CO will host the 2019 Junior Olympic Championships (cadet individual and juniors, individual and teams).
March NAC will take place in Cleveland, Ohio ( Y10, Y12 and Y14).
Other events will be announced as they approach.
Please start booking up your travel today!
Competitors, coaches and their families are guaranteed the lowest hotel rates for each of the national events by booking their rooms through GroupHousing, the official housing partner of USA Fencing.
Rooms to the hotels closest to the venues go fast, some of the hotels are sold out already.
For those new to competition, please stay tuned for a new post, with all the information regarding setting up goals, qualifying, planning your travel and more.
We wish everyone a great new season!
Summer Camps at Olympia
A great new season starts with great preparation and training!
Our club offers this year five whole weeks of advanced fencing camps, for both epee and foil weapons.
From July 29 to August 4, we’re running the international sleepover epee camp, with special guest Olympian and World medalist, Jose Luis Abajo, inducted in the International Fencing Hall of Fame in 2013.
For the foil camp, we invited Olympian and Premier Fencing Club owner, Tamer Tahoun and world silver medalist in Verona, earlier this year, May Tieu.
All the students in the most advanced epee program are invited to the last camp of the summer, from August 13 to 17, to the Advanced Day Camp.
New this year!
For the first time ever, because our youngest students fence as hard and love their fencing same as the older ones, we created a special camp for them: the Advanced Youth Épée Camp.
This camp mirrors our advanced fencing camps, but it’s geared towards our youngest, most talented students, so they can practice and learn together new skills.
Situational bouting, balance and coordination, speed, strength and endurance exercises, mental preparation – are only a few subjects to be addressed during this week of camp, to help our young fencers better understand the sport and give them an edge in starting the season.
Sadly saying Goodbye…
It’s time to say goodbye and good luck to Olympia’s students who graduated high school and embark on their journey to college 🙁
Robert Hondor: New Jersey Institute of Technology
Jiayi Ruan: UMass Amherst (will continue fencing in college)
Nathaniel Adamian: University of Toronto (will continue fencing in college)
Gayane Kaligian: Boston University
Becca Barnes: University of North Carolina (will continue fencing in college)
Ben Hazell: Temple University
Meghan O’Reilly: University of Notre Dame (will continue fencing in college)
The graduates goodbye party is scheduled for Sunday, July 22nd!
Olympia Alumni are welcome and so are their families – see you all there!
We Raise Champions!