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Salle Updates

Fencers often refer to their club as a salle (pronounced 'sal'). The word comes from the French "salle d'armes" which translates to "room of weapons."

7/27/10 - Competition Schedule to be posted soon

The competitive schedule will be posted in the next couple of weeks. The High School Scholastic League has its dates listed, albeit no venues. And, of course, the National tournaments have been annouced. Stay tuned for San Luis Obispo and Los Angeles events to be announced.

And a huge thank you to everyone who showed up at our annual beach BBQ. Parents, I'm sorry if your fencers were too sore to do Sunday chores. Hooverball was a hit (as usual) and the food was outstanding! Thank you, Tom, for manning the grill.

Now let's get ready for a new season.

6/03/10 - Tom Pingel earns his Foil B

Tom Pingel became a double member of the B Club on Sunday when he tied for the bronze at SLO's Memorial Day Open Foil. This finish earned Tom his B in Foil, complementing his freshly renewed B rating in Epee, from his gold medal at the UCSB Open on May 15. Other Presidio fencers in the finals were Jeff VanHousen (Bronze), Keric Moore (6th), and Chris Noyes (7th).

Congratulations, Tom!

5/05/10 - Weekend Recap

The Southern California Division of the US Fencing Association held their final qualifier to National Championships last weekend in Calabasas. The qualifier was made up of two parts: Youth 14 events and Under 19 Team events. One highlight of the day was seeing four of our Y12 and Y14 fencers step up to the challenge and form a U19 Foil team to represent our club. Thank you, Sean Strong, Matt Schmidt, Jieh Meinhold, and Nick Cleland for your show of enthusiasm.

Presidio's U19 Womens Epee team, made up of Christiana Lyman, Sabrina Sorich, and Captained by Lydia Kaestner, lost a nail-biter to the A-team from Swords Fencing Studios. They were able to dispatch Swords's B-team team 5-20 to take the bronze medal and qualify to National Championships. Kaestner and Lyman also formed a womens foil team, along with Selah Carr, but there were no other entrants.

In the Y14 womens foil event, Selah Carr finished with the Silver medal, and Isabella Franco finished 6th. In the mens foil, Sean Strong had the highest club finish at 5th place. Other Presidio competitors were Parker Muir (8th), Matt Schmidt (9th), Oliver Bublitz (11th) and Nick Cleland (14th). For two Presidio fencers, Isabella Franco and Nick Cleland, this Y14 qualifier was their first taste of USFA competition.

4/19/10 - Weekend Recap

What a weekend for fencing! Two days... two tournaments....

On Saturday, Presidio hosted the third event in the Central Coast Youth Foil Circuit. This smaller tournament, attended by fencers from Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo, held events for three separate age groups: Youth 10, Youth 12, and Youth 14. Grant Hopkins, easily the smallest athlete in the bunch, made a huge push and upset the number 1 seed to take the gold medal in the Y10. Matt Schmidt took the Y12 gold, and Jieh Meinhold won the Y14. Other medalists were Carter Block (Y10 Silver), Noah Caso (Y10 Bronze), Nick Cleland (Y12 Silver), Sean Strong (Y12 Bronze), Parker Muir (Y14 Silver), and Jason Hu (Y14
Bronze). I want to extend a huge note of appreciation to Gage Delany, Mary Alice Wintz, Stephanie Murphy, Lydia Kaestner, and Sophie Russo for their help refereeing. I also want to acknowledge Coach Eric McDonald for his work reffing and coaching.

On Sunday, the Southern California Division of the USFA hosted its Division II/III qualifier at Santa Barbara City College. Presidio fencers were there in force, volunteering their time to help with set-up and clean-up and also to show support for their teammates. From an official's perspective, the tournament was fantastic! We started on time, finished early, and kept the fencing going all day
long. Before I recap the event, I want to take the time to thank and acknowledge the volunteers:

The Lyman Family (Grant, Dawn, Christiana, Gabrielle, and Noah) who were key in ensuring that everything was set-up on time.

Ben and Jake Wiener, who, like the Lymans, were wonderfully self-less with their time.

Lydia Kaestner, one of the first in and last out, and all that after fencing in two events.

Prof. Randy Bublitz, who donated his day as the SBCC representative to make sure that the event ran as smoothly as possible and also that our costs were minimal.

Paul Wintz, and Timothy and Bruce Stanton, who also came early to help set everything up.

As for the recap, Presidio fencers were represented in the finals of three of the five events in which they competed. Paul Wintz and Lydia Kaestner upset higher seeds to find themselves fencing in the gold medal matches of the Mens and Womens Epee. And Presidio finished with a medal sweep in the womens foil, with Mary Alice Wintz taking the gold, Sophia Russo taking silver, and Beatrix Salcher finishing with the bronze. Of note, this was Beatrix's first fencing tournament. What a showing!

In fact, I would also like to point out that yes, that was Matt Kuiken you saw. He came out of semi-retirement for a solitary day of saber. In case you missed him, don't worry, he'll be back to the salle soon.

And finally, this tournament acts as reminder to us all that Santa Barbara is within the borders of the Southern California Division. All members of the USFA should claim SoCal as their home division. I realize there is confusion about Central Coast v. Southern California, but Central California Division ends in San Luis Obispo County. Please check your registration status with the US Fencing National Office.