2014 New England Club Championships, March 2nd, 2014

On this past Sunday, March 2nd, the club participated in the New England Club Championships at the UNH campus. After competing in multiple bouts, UConn’s men and women club fencers were ranked 5 overall out of the 6 clubs participating.

For everyone who participated: there may have been times where you were frustrated or thought about touches you could have made after the bout, but just know that you have accomplished a great feat by learning how to fence and by continually increasing your skill sets with tournaments and championships such as these. We gave it our all, and we learned about our ranges and where we can go from here; there is no defeat, there is only a lesson and an opportunity. In this aspect UConn did very nicely, and was also recognized in two key areas:

One highlight of the competition was when UConn’s Women’s Foil team came in at 3rd place, following Dartmouth and UMass, and preceding BU and UNH, which resulted in winning an award! Congrats to Amanda Simon, Elizabeth Lauri, and Rose Bordett on a job well done!

One other great highlight was achieved by our own Men’s Epeeist, Joseph Yang; after proving himself in the beginning bouts, he was listed as 5th in the Individual Men’s Epeeist category! Congratulations, Kai!

We are so thankful to the many fencers, and their families, who volunteered their time to drive up to the tournament, held at UNH, along with a few non-fencing spectators. It may have been a long drive, but the club went in ready to start fencing.

The amount of support and tips going between the fencing club members and the resting fencers on the sidelines was absolutely wonderful! No matter how easy or hard one bout could be, the team was always backing each other up and it was extremely heart-warming to see and experience. This was especially true when a teammate was feeling unwell and another subbed in, in his place. A big thank you goes out to all of the UConn members, who did and did not fence, for making this competition day run smoothly! You made this event all the more fun, and we hope to experience more competitions like this in the near future!