Charlottesville Fencing Alliance

Just a reminder that CFA will be closed for saber class and open fencing this Sunday. Its Mothers Day people, go do something nice for your mom!

At the Cinco de Mayo tourney this past weeked, CFA fencers won everything. And they also took Silvers in everything. And bronzes in everything.

Foil
1. Nathaniel Sides
2. Ken Fales
3. Chiron Anderson
Also David Sanford, Ethan Bush and Max Petersen taking Bronze

Saber:
1. Doug Daniels
2. Nathaniel Lilly
3. Ken Fales
4. Emily Brown

Epee:
1. David Sanford
2. Ken Fales
3 (tie). Tristan Johnson
3 (tie). Nathaniel Sides
Also medaling were Rosalie Purvis, Aaron Olowin and Matthew Olowin.

Awesome event CFA fencers, you make us proud!

In addition to excellence in our chosen sport, CFA also recognizes and honors our athletes for their classroom accomplishments. Speaing of which, congratulations go out to Asst. Coach Sarah Simmons for taking a gold medal on the National Latin Exam.

CFA has a wealth of talented members who excel in both the classroom and on the strip. As such we wanted to make our members aware of USA Fencing National All-Academic Team program. This program rewards fencers who are champions with a pen and with a sword.

Last year VA had several fencers qualify including CFA’s Anya Michaelsen. For more information please go to the following link and please let us know if you have any questions. This year Sarah Simmons, Doug Daniels and Anya Michaelsen will be going out for the team this year. If you or your fencer would like to try for the team as well, contact one of our coaches for additional information and be sure to check out the national page at: http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Fencing/Athlete-Info/All-Academic-Team.aspx

This past weekend Doug Daniels won the Mens Junior Mens Saber Championship! Doug also took the silver in the Cadet Mens Saber. This same weekend Anya Michaelsen took the 3rd for the bronze medal in the Mission Fencing Regional Open Circuit!

Our next round of Home School Beginners Classes will begin on March 18th. That class will run from 1:30-3pm That afternoon we will also be starting our next Youth and Family classes which will run from 5-6pm. Starting Thursday, March 21st from 6-7pm.

The classes are designed to take a fencer from absolute beginners to intermediate fencer. The classes run for 8 weeks with a tournament for the final class. All gear is included in the initial fee.

To register or for more information please contact our membership coordinator at info@fencingalliance.org

A strong showing from all of our fencers competing in the Div II/III Summer National Camps qualifier this weekend! CFA took more medals overall than any other club, but more importantly we had some wonderful breakout fencing from several of our fencers. Emily Brown was the big winner Saturday, taking silver in the Womens Saber and qualifying Div II and Div II. Nathaniel Sides took a Bronze in the Mens Foil qualifying Div III and Grayson Katzenbach took a Bronze in the Womens Foil and qualified Div III. Grayson is still in her first year of fencing, so an especially strong finish for her.

On the second day of the tournament, CFA increased our medal count and had some breakout fencing from some of our teammates. In the Mens Epee, Aaron Olowin took a Bronze medal in a very tough field, earning his D13 and qualifying Div II, Div III and Vet mens epee. Chiron Anderson also fenced a very strong tournament, bringing home a Bronze and qualifying for Div III as well. In the Mens Saber, Nathaniel (Bob) Lilly defeated teammate and top seed Doug Daniels to finish in the final four, taking a bronze and qualifying for Div III. Rosei Purvis was our sole Womens Epee fencer and she did us proud, taking Bronze.

Also a big thanks to our coaches Nick and Ken for running the event and Coach Sarah and Anya for giving up their weekends to help coach their teammates! Also a big thanks to the the parents who helped us with stocking and running the concession stand.

It will be great having such a large group of fencers, along with our Div 1, Junior, Senior, and youth qualifiers, representing us at the National Championships! Congrats to all of our fencers from this weekend. CFAers, you make us proud!

This past weekend at the 2013 Junior Olympics CFA’s fencers did exceptionally well! Douglas Daniels exploded into the Junior Saber event, earning national points in an incredibly strong field. Doug is our first CFA saber fencer to earn National Points and if all that were not spiffy enough, he was also the highest placing Virginia fencer in the saber event! Anya Michaelsen earned Junior and Cadet points in the womens foil, further adding to her national points. Sarah Simmons represented us in the Cadet and Junior Womens Epee and was the second highest placing VA fencer in the event, despite fencing hurt. Nathaniel (Bob) Lilly represented us in the Cadet Saber as well, placing 3rd highest among VA saber fencers behind Doug and Jacob Asch.

All in all one of our best JO’s yet. A huge congrats to our fencers who worked hard to qualify and then represent CFA and the VA Division so well on the National Stage. Most assuredly Doug, Sarah, Bob and Anya, you make us very proud!

CFA had a good number of fencers come out to attend the first Open in some time hosted by our friends at JMU Fencing Club. We were absent several of our “usual suspect” fencers in some events, so it is great to see some other club members beginning to compete more regularly. Congrats to JMU and Cyndi Lucente for a well-run and fun tournament. CFA brought back four medals from the event:

Nathaniel Sides, Silver and a D13! (D Foil)
Nathaniel “Bob” Lilly, Bronze (D Saber)
Sarah Simmons, Bronze (D Epee)
Anya Michaelsen, Bronze (Open Foil)

Congrats to our medalists and all our fencers who went out to compete in the event. You make us proud!

A huge congratulations to Anya Michaelsen for taking the gold (and updating to a B13) at the Capital Clash SYC in the Cadet Womens Foil! The Clash is the largest SYC in the country and her win over fencers from all across the country is a huge success. Be sure to congratulate her when you see her at the club. Great job Anya, you make us all proud!

We had several CFA fencers make their tournament debut at the River City Rumble. We are always happy to attend tourneys hosted by RFC, as we know they will be well ran and offer great competition. Speaking of which, Nathaniel sides brought back the silver and his E13 in the E&Under foil! Congrats to Nathaniel and all the fencers who made their away tourney debut. Stepping out of the club into USFA competition is a brave thing and you all make us proud.