In other words, it was huge! But the tournament committee and the refs did a fantastic job of keeping things moving along both days. They even promoted everyone out of the pools - no cuts! - which meant everyone got to fence at least one direct elimination match. So a huge 'thank you' goes out to all of them for making the event the huge success it was.
We had five people fencing on Saturday. Scott, Liz, and Shane did mixed foil, Meredith entered women's epee, and Scott and Brandon T. were in the monster saber event. Sunday saw Scott and Meredith fencing again, this time in mixed epee, along with David, Stephen, and Ed. Morgan came out as well, fencing in the women's saber event.
On Saturday, all three of our foilists had byes in the first elimination round, then Shane and Liz each went up against two of the three fencers who were tied for eighth at the time. Their day ended there, alas, and they finished side-by-side in the final placing. Scott made it into the round of 16 before he was finally bumped out by a fencer who continued into the final four. He placed 9th overall, narrowly missing updating his C rating.
Meredith also had a tough match-up in the women's epee DEs, facing the 9th place seed in her first elimination round. But it was a great warm-up for Sunday's mixed epee!
Saturday's mixed saber event was Brandon T.'s first competition and he picked a great one to start off with! Although he was knocked out in his first DE, he made a great impression on a lot of people. Can't wait to see him go out and do it again! Scott fenced into the round of 16 before having to call it a day.
Sunday was another full day of fencing. Although Morgan had to miss Saturday's huge saber melee, she was there for Sunday's women's saber event. She won her first DE round but then found herself matched up against the number one seed and eventual tournament winner. Still, not a bad way to spend a Sunday!
In epee, Scott, Meredith, and Ed are familiar faces at Virginia tournaments but David and Stephen were new to the division, although not new to competition. David and Meredith fenced solid games and laid some good groundwork for their next outings. Stephen had a bye in the first DE round and very nearly won the next round's match. It was a heck of a bout! And while his day ended there, it was enough to update his E rating to 2012. Ed made it into the third round before being knocked out but he got to take home a C12 rating for his efforts. And Scott made it two more rounds beyond that, finally being eliminated in the round of 8. His 7th place finish earned him a shiny A12. 'Way to go!' just doesn't come close to how tickled I am with everyone's performances last weekend!
Although I was a bit busy with other things during our fencers' bouts, I was able to record one of the mixed epee semi-final matches and the final. The videos are on our YouTube channel so wander on over and take a look when you have a chance. There's some pretty sweet fencing there!
