This last weekend in Cleveland, Ohio, UFO was a supporting club of the Third Annual Fencers Attacking Diabetes Open. This event was held to benefit the American Diabetes Association. This event was also the Northern Ohio Division’s Sectional Circuit event for this year.
Saturday, September 14
On Saturday there was mixed Sabre and mixed Foil. Ben Schleis was the lone Michigan fencer in the mixed Sabre event which featured 19 fencers (if a few more Michigan Sabrists would have shown up could have been at least an “C” level event). Ben was able to epee his way through his pool with a 4-1 record and even forced the A rated Sabrist to have fence harder than she wanted to. In DE’s, Ben continued using his Epee bounce to good measure until he met a Sabrist that wasn’t shaken up with it and defeated him for a very solid 3rd place finish.
Mixed Foil saw Judi Isaacson, John Arkison, new UFO’er Matt Reesman, and (she does fence occasionally) Amy Webster amongst the 61 total fencers (three away from a possible A3). Judi and John used there epee skills during the pool round. In Judi’s DE, she had to the referee so well trained with her epee skills that they did not see her actual parry-ripostes! Amy drove all the way to Cleveland to fence Liberty Lakes fencer, Brett Spangler. Matt was the victor in his first DE and fenced very cleanly in his second but was not able to win the bout.
Sunday, September 13
Sunday featured the Open Epee event. This event had 72 registered fencers, unfortunately the event was 2 A’s or B’s away from an A3 rated event (with ratings being given out all the way down to 32)!!! UFO representatives were John Arkison, Andrew Aitken, Judi Isaacson, and Ben Schleis. In pools, John had a 3-3 record, Judi finished 4-2, Andrew was 2-3 and Ben was 4-1. Judi was able to channel the spirit of Julio Mazzolio (an example of finesse and clean, precise bladework) to win her first DE. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to help her through the next one. John Arkison defeat David Leighton and moved on to fence Daniel Rahl (who drove all the way from Leslie, MI to fence John). Andrew Aitken’s first DE was a very close match. The bout went back and forth with very close touches and neither Andrew nor his opponent were able to gain more than a 1 touch lead. After the first break, Andrew’s opponent started to crack under the pressure (even though she had a one touch lead at the time). As the bout went on, Andrew kept his cool and was finally able to string together 2 touches in a row which finally mentally destroyed his opponent and gave him the victory (and fit of crying for her after the bout). Ben defeated his first opponent and for his second DE ended up driving all the way to Cleveland to fence Brett Spangler! Brett had some very quality touches but at the end of the bout, Ben had the larger quantity and was victorious. His next opponent was GLSC’s Dan Rahl. Dan started the bout with a 7-4 lead in the first period. After the break, Ben came back to take the lead and win the bout. Ben was defeated in the next round by one of Hooked on Fencing’s fencers for a 7th place finish.
Overall, UFO fenced very well and represented Michigan very well at this Sectional Event. All of the UFO fencers had a good time and for the most part were pleased with there finishes.