What a great day of fencing this past weekend. We had 72 entries at the meet in Rochester on Saturday, January 23. Twenty two of them were from Vermont and Massachusetts, traveling several hours to fence with us. We kept all six strips busy all day, and had some great results for Seacoast fencers.
In the Youth 10 and under mixed foil, we had two Seacoast fencers in the gold medal bout! It was won by Mackenzie Chou, with Will Chiang earning the silver medal. We had another all Seacoast gold medal bout, in Youth 14 and under mixed epee- this was won by Pete Shellenberger, with Nicole Chiang taking second. Nicole was also third in Y14 women’s foil. Victoria D’Amico was second in Youth 12 and under women’s foil, and Ethan Donahue was third in Y12 mixed foil. Emily Benz and Johanna Ebers tied for third in Y14 women’s foil. Congratulations to Seacoast youth fencers!
In the Veteran’s 40 and older events, Peter Bixby and Ron Raiselis tied for third in mixed epee, and Yvonne Walton was third in mixed foil. Well, done, veterans.

The Holiday Open this weekend was a huge tournament, with 68 fencers entered in five events. And Seacoast fencers had a great day! We had one first place finish, Nicole Chiang, who won the Women’s Foil, and also finished second in Women’s Epee. Two of our former fencers, Andrew Soule-Hinds (Haverford University), and Courtney Krolikoski (UNC graduate, now living in Hungary) did very well, with Courney winning the Women’s Epee, and finishing 6th in the Mixed Epee, and Andrew finishing third in Mixed Foil, and earning a C09 rating. Dianna Hohensee finished second in Women’s Foil, and seventh in Mixed Foil, and Ida Choy finished third in both Women’s Epee and Women’s Foil. Ethan Miller finished fifth in Mixed Epee. Overall, a fine day for Seacoast Fencers! Congratulations!

This past Sunday, Seacoast fencers posted some terrific results in the E meet in Rochester. In epee, we had a two person wrecking crew in Nicole Chiang and Ida Choy, who met in the gold medal bout in both women’s and mixed epee. Nicole won both events, with Ida taking second. Great fencing by both of them! In the mixed epee, 13 year old Seacoast fencer Pete Shellenberger finished third, completing a nice sweep for Seacoast.
In a hard fought final, Josh Berk finished second in the mixed foil, and Isabella Connelly finished second in women’s foil. Congratulations to all our fencers!

Two Seacoast fencers participated in the Super Youth Tournament at Mission Fencing on Long Island this past weekend. Super Youth meets are where the best fencers in the country (and Canada) compete to earn national points. Nicole Chiang fenced extremely well, finishing fifth in Y14 Women’s Epee (not her primary weapon!), just missing the final four by one touch. She finished 12th in Y14 Women’s Foil, losing in the round of 16 to the number one seed, and eventual winner. Nicole earned national points in both events. Pete Shellenberger fenced well, and was 15th in Y14 Men’s Epee, also losing to the number one seed. Congratulations to both Seacoast fencers.

Seacoast fencers had a great showing in the E events at the Granite State Open this Halloween weekend. Isabella Connelly won the Women’s Foil E, with Hannah Atmer finishing third. Hannah also finishished tied for third with Seacoast teammate C.J. Gregory in Women’s Epee E. The men did well, too, with Nick Shepherd taking second in the Mixed Foil E, and John Strauss finishing third in Mixed Epee E.
Our results in the Open were not as impressive, but we did make the finals in two events. Tristan Strauss (John’s son) finished fifth in the Mixed Epee Open, and Dianna Hohensee (fencing unattached), who trains once a week at Seacoast, finished third in the Mixed Foil Open.
Congratulations to all our fencers!

It is the beginning of the Fall Term at Seacoast.

We start in Rochester on Tuesday, Sept 8, and in Manchester, on Wednesday, Sept 9. We will have a parents meeting on the first day of practice in each location. Parents should make every effort to attend. We will have a youth, junior, and adult fencers meeting on the second practice, Thursday (9/10) in Rochester, and Monday (9/14) in Manchester. Both meetings will start at 7:00.

Sundays in Rochester, and Thursdays in Manchester: Junior and Adult Training only on these two days. 6:00 to 8:00 pm on Sundays in Rochester, and 7:00 to 9:00 pm Thursdays in Manchester. Children and youth training is not offered on those two days. Youths can come in, but they will be with older and generally larger fencers.

The fees for training are below. Please make checks for training and classes payable to Seacoast Fencing Club, and bring your payment the first session you attend.

Children (ages 7-12): $225 Youth (ages 12-14): $240 Juniors and Adults (ages 14 and over): $255

Advanced Class - $75 Nine classes during each term (27 classes for the entire course, runs from Sept to May). This cost is in addition to the Training fees.

Seacoast Fencing Club charges one fee for each age category, which will give unlimited access to the club, in both locations (OK, only when we are open!). We hope this will encourage everyone to fence as often as their schedule allows, rather than guess at the beginning of each term.

Ten 15 minute Private Lessons: Chris Pullo- $280 Bugsy (David Rabitor)- $225 Yvonne Walton and Ron Raiselis- $195

Private lessons are paid directly to the coach giving the lessons, not to the Seacoast Fencing Club.

Seacoast fencers in Manchester and Rochester- June term upon us, and as is always the case, the attendance is less than during the regular season.For that reason, I would like to try something new. During June and August, I want to combine the Youth Training with the Junior and Adult Training. Only the Children’s Training will be unchanged- 6:00 to 6:50 on Tuesdays and Thursdays in Rochester, and Mondays and Wednesdays in Manchester.

All Seacoast fencers (other than children) will start at 6:30 pm weekdays, and 6:00 pm on Sundays, and train together. We will start with laps to warm up, then stretch, then footwork, then drills, then bouting. This also means that the youth fencers can come in and train on Sundays in Rochester, and Thursdays in Manchester. I will focus primarily on the youths during the first hour, and the juniors and adults thereafter. I think this will work out well for all of us.

If you have any questions, feel free to call me at 428-7040 (between 10:00 am and 4:00 pm).

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!