Yesterday, UFO hosted the Welding Class Open. So named because Amy has learned how to weld and made up some really cool awards. This event also marked the debut of UFO’s new grounded metal strips which arrived and were installed Friday evening.
These awards were cool enough that they enticed a large contingent of fencers to trek up from Ohio. The event’s preregistration page was quite impressive with potential A’s and B’s to be awarded (except in Sabre which went until Wednesday before having more than 2 preentries).
Mixed Sabre
Despite a calling out by Tom Evangelisti in his weekly email newsletter, 5 Sabre fencers took part in the event (2 of whom had bad knees). When all was said and done, Keith Bizek came out victorious and got the first welded fencer of the day. UFO’s John Arkison came in second. Tom Evangelisti and Nathan Goretski took the third place finishes in the event. The highest finishing U was Judi Isaacson who finished in 5th place.
Mixed Epee
Mixed Epee had a total of 21 fencers making the event a B1. Ben Schleis took first place renewing his B rating. Ben’s fencing apparently did not know the way to San Jose as he does wish that he fenced close to the same at Nationals. Dan Weckstein unfortunately much earlier than he would have liked and finished in 6th. Judi showed more mobility and finished 15th. John Arkison finished out in 16th place. The highest finishing D was Courtney Dumas. Highest E went to Shawn Barnes. And the highest U was awarded to Keith Bizek (fencing Epee because he didn’t want to wait out the time between Sabre and Foil).
Mixed Foil
Due to some last minute arm twisting to get 25 (thank you John Arkison) and getting one of the directors to fence with his off hand (tip of the hat to Andy Tulleners), Mixed Foil had the potential to be an A2 event. The two lone UFO fencers in Mixed Foil were Grace Lisius and John Arkison (who finished 25th and 22nd, respectively). Cody Murphy played the part of spoiler by defeating Andy Tulleners (one of the B’s that needed to make the round of 8) to knock the event done to a B2. When all was said and done, Anatolie Senic defeated Mike Cho in the gold medal bout. 3rd place was taken by Mike Purdy-Sachs and Yves LeBlanc. Highest D was Keith Bizek (who walked away with a complete team of welded fencers). Highest E was Alinah Purdy-Sachs (earning her D in the process). And highest U was Michelle Zehe.
