This past weekend in Concord, Seacoast fencers won both Y14 Epee events to qualify for the Summer National Championships in Texas, and qualified two others as well. Nicole Chiang fenced extremely well, competing in four events over the two days, and qualifying in all four. She was first in the Y14 Women’s Epee, and second in the other three: U16 Women’s Foil, U16 Women’s Epee, and Y14 Women’s Foil. 12 year old Peter Shellenberger won the Y14 Men’s Epee, finishing a great season in youth epee. In the Y14 Men’s Foil, twin brothers Jacob and Aaron Pentheny finished second and third, respectively, and thereby qualifed for the Nationals as well. We are awaiting word from the National Office on a rules clarification on the automatic qualifier status of two other fencers, which could qualify two other fencers, Ryleigh Lorimer in Y14 Women’s Foil, and Addis Gregory in Y14 Men’s Foil (both finished fourth in their events). Congratulations to all the Seacoast Fencers competing this weekend!

At the National Qualifiers in Portland, Maine this weekend, Seacoast once again was the dominate team, winning six of the eight events we entered! Our Senior Men’s Epee team of Tristan Strauss, Yang Tang, and Ethan Miller had the hardest path, defeating Wicked Cool 45-35, and then defeating Portland 45-27 in the gold medal match. Our Senior Men’s Foil team, Ethan Miller, John Wolfe, and Kevin Cough defeated Wicked Cool 45-35, and then beat Downeast 45-34. Our Women’s Foil team (Yvonne Walton, Ida Choy, and Nicole Chiang) won that event, 45-35 over Downeast.
Our Junior teams won three events as well, defeating Downeast twice, 45-24 in U19 Men’s Epee (Yang Tang, Tristan Strauss, and Will Carbery), and again in U19 Men’s Foil, 45-25 (John Wolfe, Yang Tang, and Nick Shepherd). Our U19 Women’s Epee team of Victoria Kerkhove, CJ Gregory, and Isabella Connelly unfortunately had no other team enter, and so won by default.
Congratulations, Seacoast fencers and coaches!

At the Super Youth in Wellesley, MA last weekend, Seacoast only entered one fencer, but what a job he did. On Saturday, Peter Shellenberger fenced in the Y12 Men’s Foil, and by fencing hard, and changing his game when necessary, he finished 19th out of 64 fencers, good enough to earn national points for the second time in three months. But Sunday, Peter was on fire, and won the Y12 Men’s Epee! Congratulations, Pete! With his second place finish in January at the Super Youth at UNH, he should have a lot of national points in Y12 Men’s Epee.
And a special thank you to Tristan Strauss for coaching him in the epee on Sunday.

We are ready to start another term at Seacoast Fencing Club! The three month tuition for the club provides unlimited access to the club. Come as often as you want, whenever the club is open. Also, we reduced the advanced class tuition to $75 per term, in hopes to encourage more fencers to take this valuable course.

Spring in New Hampshire still means snow storms, so if it is snowing (and especially if there is icing), check the website, and your email before driving out.

Spring Tuition (for three months- March, April, and May):
Children- $225, Youth- $240, Junior and Adult- $255.

Email me if you have questions.

Seacoast Fencing Club had a great day at the Unclassified and Y-12 meet this weekend.  Our members won two of the three events, came in second in two, and took third in all three. The Mixed (both men and women competing), Epee Unclassified event was a sweep by Seacoast fencers. It was won by Will Carbery, with John Strauss, second, and John Wolfe third. The Mixed Foil Unclassified was won by John Strauss, with Will Carbery third.  In the Youth 12 and under Mixed Foil, Seacoast fencers Ryleigh Lorimer was second, and Peter Shellenberger was third.

Seacoast Fencing Club in Manchester, NH hosted four C level events at a tournament organized by the Northeast Division of the United States Fencing Association, drawing fencers from New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Seacoast Fencing Club had an exceptional day, with its fencers winning three of the four events, taking second place in the fourth event, and placing third in all of them.

The Mixed (both men and women competing), Epee C event was won by Ethan Miller, a Seacoast fencer from Mont Vernon, NH. His teammate Yang Tang, from Londonderry, NH, was third. The Women’s Epee C was won by Kate Cavanaugh, from Portsmouth, NH. Cavanaugh trains at both Seacoast Fencing Club locations, in Rochester and Manchester. Her Seacoast teammate, Victoria Kerkhove, of Exeter, NH, was third. In the Women’s Foil C, Yvonne Walton of Londonderry won the gold. She also finished third in the Mixed Foil C. Walton is an assistant coach at Seacoast Fencing Club in Manchester. Alexandra Van De Water of Bow, NH, another Seacoast fencer, was second in the Mixed Foil C, and also took third in the Women‘s Foil C.

Seacoast Fencing Club in Manchester will be hosting the Junior Olympic Qualifiers on Saturday and Sunday, December 15 and 16. Those who qualify will compete against 1800 other fencers in Charlotte, NC, February 15-18.

What a championship season Seacoast is having!  We’ve held the U19, U16, Y14, Y12, Y10, and Junior and Senior Team Division Championships, and Seacoast has been terrific, winning nearly half the medals awarded.  Congratulations, Seacoast Fencers! 

The Seacoast young women have been dominant this season, having earned the gold medal in over half the events.  In Y14 events, we swept the Women’s Foil, with Connie Su first, Victoria Kerkhove second, and Kelsey Kimball third.  In Women’s Epee, Victoria was first, and in Women’s Saber, Isabella Connelly was second (our first saber entry in over four years).  In the U16 Championships, Kate Cavanaugh was first in Women’s Epee, with Victoria Kerkhove second.  In Women’s Foil, Alexandra Van De Water was first, and Connie Su third.  The U19 Women’s Foil Championships had 15 year old Alexandra Van De Water second, and 13 year old Connie Su third, and in Women’s Epee 14 year old Victoria Kerkhove was second.  An in the Y12 foil, Ryleigh Lorimer won the gold medal.  That is 2/3 of all the medals earned in women’s events in the Division!

The Seacoast young men have been doing an excellent job as well.  In U16 Men’s Epee, Tristan Strauss was first, and Yang Tang was second.  In the U16 Men’s Foil, Yang Tang was second again.   In the U19 Championships, Tristan Strauss was second in Men’s Epee, and Tom Ronan was third.  In Men’s Foil, John Wolfe was second, and Yang Tang was third.  And in Y10 foil, Addis Gregory was second, and Peter Shellenberger was third.   

Seacoast had only one contested event in the U19 Team Championships, in Men’s Foil, which we won.  Our Men’s Epee, Women’s Foil, and Women’s Epee teams had no opponents, which was very disappointing, but we qualified all four of our teams to the Summer National Championships.

Additionally, at the Division Senior Team Championships, with mostly junior fencers, Seacoast finished  second in Women’s Foil, Men’s Epee, and Men’s Saber.  And at the Veteran’s events (held the same day, Ron Raiselis was second in Mixed Saber and third in Mixed Foil.  John Terninko was third in Mixed Saber.

Seacoast had a great weekend at the qualifiers for the Junior Olympics.  Our U-17 women won both contested events, with Kate Cavanaugh winning the epee (she also qualified in foil), and Alex Van De Water winning the foil, and also qualifying in U-20 foil with a third place finish.  Yang Tang, training exclusively in foil, was the upset silver medalist in U-17 men’s epee, and will be joining the team at the JO’s in February.  Our other medal winners were Tom Ronan, second in U-20 men’s epee, John Wolfe, third in U-17 foil, and Victoria Kerkhove, third in foil. Our other qualifiers were Cole Davis in U-20 men’s foil, and Andrew Soule-Hinds in U-20 men’s epee.  My thanks go out to all the Seacoast fencers who participated this weekend, and congratulations to all eight qualifiers.  Good luck in Denver! 

We had a good tournament in Albuquerque NM this November, with six fencers competing in ten events.  Abby Emerson led the group with a fifth place finish in U-20 Women’s Foil.  With her 12th place finish in the Junior World Cup in Bratislava, Slovakia, Abby is now 6th on the National Point standings. 

Victoria Kerkhove finished 31st in Y-14 Women’s Epee, and became our latest fencer to earn national points, and is currently ranked 44th in the USFA point standings.  Congratulations, Abby and Victoria!