The fencing season was kicked up to “11″ with the Ann Arbor Duelist Open.
The Ann Arbor Dueling Society hosts an open every August which effectively starts off the new season. Everyone’s USFA membership expires on July 31, so this is a typical event where people will re-register. This being the 11th year that the Duelists have hosted the event, the theme “this one goes to 11″ was shown on the t-shirts. Alluding to the movie, “This is Spinal Tap”, specifically the scene below:
The Mixed Foil event was an A2 event with 34 fencers participating. All of the UFO fencers fenced quite well in pools. Glenda Jeffords was able to defeat friend of UFO Tom Evangelisti in the pool round and was also able to score touches on most of her opponents. Erica King defeated the B fencer in her pool on her way to a number 9 seed. Ben Schleis did well and lost only to one of Michigan’s top fencers, Sam Nemechek. Grace Lisius showed excellent actions defeating the other U and having good touches on her opponents.
In the DE’s, Glenda Jeffords was defeated by Sam Nemechek. Though Glenda fenced very well, she was not able to defeat Sam. Erica King with her 9th seed had to fence fellow UFO’er Grace in the first round. This bout was a well fought bout by both fencers. Erica was defeated by an out-of-state B in the round of 16. Ben Schleis’ first bout was against FAS’ Tom Evangelisti. Tom showed Ben some good actions but ultimately Ben was the winner. In the round of 16, Ben Schleis faced Dan Bock. In a very close bout that had Ben wiping his brow over multiple hits that did not register (including one that resulted in a yellow card). Ben won the bout and advanced to the round of 8 where he ran into Sam Nemechek. Ben was not able to resist counter-attacking into Sam’s march (a typical epee response) and ended up defeated about 15-8. The top 8 finish for Ben resulted in his renewing of his “C” rating. Yves LeBlanc, UFO fencer in spirit, was equally succesful in his DE bouts. Yves defeated WMFA’s Haley Conover on his way to a third place finish earning himself a B08 rating in the process. Congratulations, Yves!! (C’est le vie)
Sabre was a very difficult E event with only 12 fencers (3 fencers away from a C rating!!). The only UFO fencer was Ben Schleis amongst the many RFC sabrists and a couple of Duelists. Ben started off slow in pools, losing his first two bouts but pulled off a 3-2 record placing him as the 5th seed. Ben was fencing quite well in the first two rounds defeating his opponents and in the semi-finals met RFC’s Justin Weiber resulting in a “Beer Bout”. Justin led at the break 8-6 and kept a 2-touch lead throughout the match. Ben was able to catch up and claimed the victory (and the beer) winning 15-14. In the gold medal bout, Ben was pitted against RFC’s Keith Bizek. In a well fought bout, Keith came out on top taking the gold and giving Ben 2nd place.
Like most years Epee showed many of the Duelists coming out of the woodwork to show that they still fence and with 41 fencers was an A2 event. Sally Lee became a UFO fencer in name as well as spirit and came out of pools with 2 victories (and a really sweet wrist pick on her “A” fencer). Avery Gase has not yet forgiven Ben for making last year’s Duelist 10 his first tournament. His claim is that he wasn’t ready!! This year having a better idea of what to expect (and having all of his weapons working from the start) Avery was able to get touches on all of his opponents. Judi Isaacson is still testing her new mobility but unfortunately is not yet 100%. Judi was able to land 3 touches on her “A” despite not having her full mobility. Ben Schleis had a very rocky pools going 3-2 with his weapons causing trouble throughout the pool. His last bout due to weapon problems gave him a 4 touch deficit that he made up (once his weapons all worked) winning 5-4. John Arkison fenced very well despite not winning all the bouts that he felt that he should have (sometimes that happens). Andrew Aitken had a awesome pool round going undefeated on his way to a #1 seed in the DE’s.
In DE’s Avery met one of the few Duelists that fence with UFO during the week, Scott Favre. Despite the bout being interrupted due to some issues with the tableau, Avery was able to upset the higher seeding Scott thus insuring that Avery finish much better than his previous Duelist experience!! Great fencing Avery! Sally and John were a second clash of UFO fencers. Unfortunately there can be only one! In this case, it was John Arkison who came out on top in a very good bout and Sally did avail herself excellently. Andrew Aitken feeling pretty good about his top seed from the pool round didn’t let it go to his head and maintained his composure in his first DE. Andrew brain-grenaded his opponent with his absence of blade and composed fencing. Way to go Andrew! Unfortunately in his next DE the opponent was quite fast and Andrew lost in the next round. Judi Isaacson was pitted against David Leighton from Escrime du Lac and defeated him soundly. Her next oppponent was HOF’s Liam Butterfield, sadly, Judi’s footwork has not completely returned and she was defeated. Ben Schleis seeded 14th and drew the Ann Arbor Sword Club’s David Hornstra for his first DE. Ben was victorious and his next opponent was HOF’s Liam Butterfield. The bout was very close with Butterfield leading for most of it, Ben was able to pull to 14-14 but a slight exposure of his pinky gave up the winning touch and Ben’s three weapon day was finished.
UFO availed itself quite well in this event. Great job, everyone that showed up and excellent fencing!
