The results are in and SoCal fencers will be returning from this year’s Summer Nationals in Minneapolis, Minnesota with 32 medals! Six of them gold!! Congratulations to all our medalists, especially our first-place finishers: Christopher Davoodian, Janna Freedman, Regina Lee, Chloe Sun, Tino Tani and Xuanyi Zhang.

SoCal Medalists are listed below. Full results can be found here.

SoCal Medalists - Men

SoCal Medalists - Women

VIDEOS OF 2022 SUMMER NATIONALS BOUTS WITH SOCAL FENCERS
Y-12 Men’s Epee Semi-Final – Christopher Davoodian (SoCal) v A.J. Trull (New England)
Y-12 Men’s Epee Final – Christopher Davoodian (SoCal) v David Dodin (Metro NYC)
Y-10 Men’s Saber Semi-Final – Howard Li (SoCal) v Tino Tani (SoCal)
Y-10 Men’s Saber Final – Victor Liu (Georgia) v Tino Tani (SoCal)
Div III Women’s Epee Semi-Final – Olivia Lee (SoCal) v Kaitlyn Lee (CenCal)
Div III Women’s Epee Final – Grace Hicks (Westchester-Rockland) v Olivia Lee (SoCal)
Y-12 Women’s Epee Semi-Final – Chloe Tolsma (Gulf Coast) v Regina Lee (SoCal)
Y-12 Women’s Epee Final – Alexandra Smuk (New England) v Regina Lee (SoCal)
Y-12 Women’s Saber Semi-Final – Xuanyi Zhang (SoCal) v Sahana Gautam (CenCal)
Y-12 Women’s Saber Final – Xuanyi Zhang (SoCal) v Isabel Schmidt (NorCal)
Y-10 Women’s Foil Semi-Final – Chloe Sun (SoCal) v Enjia Sherry Liu (National)
Y-10 Women’s Foil Final – Aphrodite Tsimiklis (Long Island) v Chloe Sun (SoCal)

Ninety fencers from across Southern California made their way to the tennis courts at Calabasas High School on Saturday for this year’s combined Junior Olympic and Summer National Qualifier Tournament. Sixty-five fencers qualified for Junior, Cadet, Division II and Division III events at the Junior Olympics and Summer Nationals to be held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from July 3-12, 2021. In addition, 13 fencers earned new ratings.

Congratulations to all our qualified fencers and good luck in Philadelphia!

Qualified fencers are listed below. Full results can be found, here.

Qualified Fencers (updated 5/25/2021)

Pasadena City College’s spacious Hutto-Patterson Gymnasium was the venue for this year’s Summer Nationals Qualifier where seventy-seven fencers vied for coveted spots in the Div. 2, Div. 3, and Y14 events at the Summer Nationals. In addition, five fencers earned new ratings. Congratulations to all our qualified fencers and good luck in Louisville!

Qualified fencers are listed below. Full results can be found, here.

Qualified Fencers

From June 28th to July 7th, 2019, many of the nation’s strongest competitors packed their fencing bags and headed off to Columbus, Ohio to compete in the annual National Championships and July Challenge. The Championship events included: Division II, Division III, Division IA, Veteran Age, Y14, Y12 and Y10. The July Challenge events were: Division I, Junior, Cadet, Senior Team and Vet Team.

Overall, SoCal ended the 2018-2019 season strong, finishing with 10 medals on the women’s side and 19 medals on the men’s side. The two SoCal golds of the tournaments were won by Lydia Fabry with her 1st place in Vet-60 Women’s Saber, and LAIFC epeeist Hugh Milam, who won Division IA.

Enjoy your summer, and we’ll see you back for the 2019-2020 season!

SoCal Medalists are listed below. For full results, see here.

SoCal Medalists - Women

SoCal Medalists - Men

Two SoCal fencers made the top 8 in the Junior Men’s Epee event at the 2018 Summer Nationals: Stephen Ewart (top row, 2nd from right) won the gold, and Stafford Moosekian (bottom row, far right) finished 8th (out of 324 competitors).

SoCal fencers returned from this year’s Summer Nationals in St. Louis (June 28–July 7, 2018) having won 30 medals in the individual events, including 2 golds: Alexander Jeffords (Div III Men’s Saber), and Stephen Ewart (Junior Men’s Epee). This marks the fourth gold medal that Stephen has won in National events this season. A remarkable achievement!

The SoCal Division would like to offer a special recognition to Men’s Epee fencer Stafford Moosekian, who medaled in Junior Men’s Epee, Cadet Men’s Epee, and Y14 Men’s Epee, earning his ‘A18’ a total of three times!

In addition, LAIFC fencers had a terrific showing in the team events, constituting 2-1/2 of the teams that achieved top-3 finishes.

SoCal Medalist are listed below. Full results can be found, here.

SoCal Medalists - Women

SoCal Medalists - Men

SoCal Teams

Rachel Lee (AGFC, left) blocks out Sarah Innes-Gold (UCSB) in Div II Women’s Saber.

Fifty-three SoCal fencers qualified for the 2018 Summer Nationals in the qualification tournament held at Hoover High School in Glendale on Saturday, Feb. 24. The Summer Nationals, which will crown champions in Div 1A, Div II, Div III, Y10, Y12 Y14, and Veteran events, will be held in St. Louis, MO from June 28 to July 7, 2018. For more information, see here.

Congratulations to all our qualified fencers and good luck in St. Louis!

Qualified fencers are listed below. For full results, see here.

Qualified Fencers - Men

Qualified Fencers - Women

Y14 Men’s Epee: Chester Thompson (Allez, right) lands one on Holden Fees (BHFC).

Edward Lee (Swords) takes on Stanley Zhou (LAIFC) in Y14 Men’s Epee.

Div II Women’s Saber: Carolina Geyer (KAFF, left) scores on the wrist of Rachel Lee (AGFC) in the table of 8.

Div II Men’s Foil: Case Avron (LAIFC, right) has his blade go all wobbly as he scores a touch against Ilyas Molina (UFA) in the round of 8.

Div II Men’s Foil: Joshua Piesner (UFA) scores against Lucas Nichols (Presidio) in the round of 16.

USA Cadet Men’s Epee Team in Klagenfurt, Austria, October 2017.

Five years ago, my son competed in his first tournament. After eight months of fencing classes and constantly saying he was not interested in competing, my son unexpectedly announced at the end of a class that he thought he might like to try entering a tournament after all. It turned out there was a regional tournament the very next weekend. I had no idea what a regional tournament was. His coach said we should sign up on the US Fencing website, go to the tournament, and however he did, as long as he competed, he would qualify for Summer Nationals. Summer Nationals? I had no idea what that meant. But the coach seemed to think it was a good thing for him to do, so okay.

I signed him up for a competitive membership at US Fencing, and we went to the tournament that weekend. It was a disaster on so many levels. Though we did find a great parking spot, right in front. I found out later finding parking was almost as competitive as the fencing itself. Who knew?

The tournament at LAIFC (Los Angeles International Fencing Center) was an RYC (Regional Youth Circuit). There were a number of different events going on, so though there were only 14 fencers in my son’s Y10 (Youth ages 10 and under) event, the place was crowded with fencers, parents, coaches. It was overwhelming. And we had no idea what to do, where to go, etc. Luckily, a very nice mother at the desk, Ellen, who I still see all the time at tournaments, introduced herself and gave a quick rundown of what we needed to know. How the tournament worked, pools, DE’s (Direct Eliminations), and that we needed two body cords for example. The basics.

My son lost all but one pool bout, and that one he won by one touch (point). He lost his first DE. As fast as it had started, it was over. My son, still wearing his mask, shook hands with the opponent and with the referee. Then he picked up his bag and carried everything straight out to our car in that prime spot. He put his gear in the trunk, got in the back seat. We rode home in silence, with the exception of very quiet crying coming from the back seat, muffled slightly by the mask he was still wearing. “Oh, well,” I thought. “At least he tried.”

Two weeks later, much to my surprise, he wanted to try again. Luckily there was another tournament coming up that weekend. This time is was just a little local tournament. Much less intimidating. That afternoon, again, I drove back with a boy wearing a fencing mask crying in the back seat. But this time, about half way home, I heard this tearful little voice say, “So, when is the next tournament?” And we were in.

He came in last in the next tournament as well. But he took his mask off on the way home. We were making progress.

Summer Nationals took place in Anaheim that year. We went because we didn’t have to travel on a plane, so it would not be too expensive. Why not go? It would be a good experience. We drove down the day before his Y10 event. As we pulled in to the hotel, it was a sea of fencing bags. Every single person, young and old, was pulling a fencing bag behind them. My son sat in the back seat, looking out the window in horror. “I can’t do this.” I knew exactly how he was feeling. It was an intimidating sight. “Tell you what,” I said. “I’ve already paid for the room. Let’s just check in. The convention center is attached to the hotel. We can just walk over and find your coach, and look around and see what it is like. And if you don’t want to fence, that’s fine. You don’t have to. No pressure.” He ended up placing 41 out of 60. More important, though, he fenced. He was 9. And he has never looked back. That was in 2012.

What is amazing to me, and what I certainly didn’t know at the time, was that a lot of those fencers are still competing. These boys have grown up together. They see each other at tournaments across the country. They follow each other on snap chat and Instagram. They text each other. My son has friends from across the country, from New York and Texas.

He will go to his first international competition, a World Cup in Austria in four weeks. He, we, have come a long way. We have learned a lot.

I am starting this blog to help other parents, new to fencing, understand how wonderful this sport is, how it works, and how to support their child through success and failure. I will cover basics, from the first competition to how to cope with injuries. I would love feedback, welcome follow up questions, topic suggestions, and any stock tips you care to share!

Div I Men’s Foil: Nick Itkin (left, LAIFC) sends Michael Li (M Team, NorCal) flying as Coach Itkin looks on.

The SoCal Division was represented strongly in Salt Lake City and we came away with medals galore. All of our top 8 finishers and their clubs are listed below. Full results can be found here.

Congratulations to all the fencers, their coaches, their clubs, and their parents!

SoCal Medalists

Junior Men’s Epee: Aidan Kung (Swords) scores against Daniel Shifron (Team Touché, San Diego).

Junior Men’s Epee: Isaac Gomez (right, Fortune) sets up his next attack against Ben Wilson (HOF, Ohio).

Junior Women’s Foil: Karina Yaroshenko (LAIFC) lays one on Isabella Ahn (Fencers Club, Metro NYC) in round-two action.

Junior Men’s Epee: Infighting between Adi Thein-Sandler and Kevin Chao (both of LAIFC).

Div I Women’s Epee: Karolina Nixon (LAIFC) takes full advantage of her reach to score against Olympian Kat Holmes (NYAC, Metro NYC).

Div I Women’s Epee: Claire Beddingfield (LAIFC) scores a decisive touch against Ariana Mangano (NYAC, Metro NYC).

Div I Men’s Saber: Michael Costin (AGFC) flunges at Zaheer Booth (PWF, Metro NYC).

Div I Men’s Foil: Nick Itkin (right, LAIFC) on the move against Michael Li (M Team, NorCal).

You can be auto-qualified if you earned points in the 2015 Junior Olympics, 2015 Summer Nationals, or in the 2015 October NAC. You will qualify if you earn points in the upcoming November and December NACs as well. Normally points roll off the rolling points list right before that same tournament for the following year is to take place, but with the case of JOs, earning points in the previous JOs(as long as you’re age eligible) will qualify you for the next JOs as well.

Division I points do trickle down to Junior and Cadet points’ lists.

You can also qualify through the RJCC points list where 2 RJCC results count toward your overall total. The top 25% in each Region will qualify for Junior Olympics.

The last way to qualify is to qualify through the Division JO Quals being held in December. You can sign up on AskFred here.

This covers most of the bases in which you can qualify for JOs, but probably doesn’t cover them all. Please ask your coaches or email us with more questions and we will find the answers if we don’t already know them ourselves.

Good luck and congrats to those who have already qualified!