Summer Nationals 2017

Salt Lake City, UT was a great and long trip for both Allez Fencing Studio and Swords Fencing Studio. With the transition, I was able to coach both students and see many medals earned this trip. 
Stafford Moosekian came back from a 2-month back injury to miss the top 8 in Cadets by one touch and he still has another year in Y14! It was great to watch and it was a pleasure to coach him and to see that all his off the strip fencing workouts paid off! He finished 19th in Y14 Men's Epee and 14th in Cadets Men's Epee. 

Irene Yeu fenced well overall throughout the competition with a 22nd place in Junior Women's Epee, 11th in Cadet Women's Epee, and 2nd in Y14 Women's Epee. She made a great run in Y14 in her last year and made it an exciting final to watch against the formidable Greta Candreva on the finals strip. It was an honor to coach her through the finals. She is now onto the Cadet Circuit and we wish her the best of luck as she starts her international career in the Fall. Congratulations to her coaches and to Irene and her family! 

Allez Fencing Studio earned it's first medal with Zoe Kim in Y10 Women's Epee! Zoe finished 8th overall and was the youngest and shortest on the podium! She has worked so hard this year and it showed! What a great first national medal for Allez and Zoe who still has one more year in Y10 Women's Epee! I'm so proud of this little fencer and look forward to working with her more. Congratulations to Zoe and her family!
This summer nationals also had some new faces enter the competition. Thomas Moore fenced in his first Summer Nationals after being plagued with injuries all year and fenced fairly well. He went 3-3 in pools, defeating one of the top fencers in the country, and then won his first DE ever. He lost to Justin Haddad, the eventual silver medalist, in his next DE with a close bout up to 12-12 where he lost to experience with a final score of 12-15. 
Rowen Hicks also had a fantastic run in pools in Y12 Men's Epee where he went 5-1, but ended up meeting his close friend in his 2nd DE, Aaron Liang, who went 4-2 in pools, and he lost a close bout, 13-15, as tends to happen when you face your friends in competition, but we look forward to the future for these two as they continue on.
Darius Kim in his first Y12 Men's Epee National event ever struggled in pools going 1-5, but made an amazing comeback in his first DE against a very good fencer who went 4-2. He was down an incredible 11-5 after the first period and never gave up as he tied the score 13-13. They went into non-combativity priority and Darius received priority while he was down 13-14. He scored one touch to tie it and the last touch was a great parry-repost! It was such an exciting thing to watch and though he lost his next DE, he had one amazing experience!
Thien Scofield, after some circumstances prevented him from training all year,  fought well in Y10 Men's Epee and made some incredible touches overall for such a tiny and determined fencer. He has one more year in Y10 and fought well in his first DE, but lost a close one 8-10. I look forward to what this season will bring as he works hard to compete more this year. 
Isabel Kim also came out to compete and made an impressive effort as she won her first pool bout in a national competition in Y10 Women's Epee! It was a good small step forward for her as she has one more year in Y10 and we look forward to her future as she trains more this year as well.

It was also a nice change of pace to see the hard work that fencers do off the strip in school. I was honored to watch Christopher Kim receive his certificate for making the All-Academic team and see how many fencers are talented and 

work hard both off and on the strip. The trip ended with another great Swords' fencer who I was honored to coach through the semis of Y10 Men's Epee. Christopher Dekermanji, who has only been fencing for 9 months, fought through many bouts to reach the semis and earned the Bronze medal, losing to the eventual Gold Medalist. He works so hard with his primary coach, Tigran Shaginian, and it definitely paid off.  I loved being there for him and coaching him to his first Nationals and first Nationals medal ever. Congratulations to all his coaches and his family!