titanic

Day 1

While Blake took some of the KOS students to Miami, FL for the NAC, I took 7 of our
fencers to Greensboro, NC for the “Titanic Open”. The “theme” of this event was women
and children only. The coordinators did a great job of keeping things moving and since
they were fencing “Brazilian style”, the kids got a lot of fencing done in a relatively short
amount of time. They also gave out awards for First – Third, based on gender.

First up was the Y14 Sabre. Hunter, Jasmine, Ryan and Ethan all fenced in this one.
There 8 kids in this event (Jasmine was the only girl). Ethan did really well, finishing 3rd,
Ryan, Hunter and Jasmine were 5th, 6th, and 7th. Jasmine won 1st place in the women’s.
During a break in the fencing action, there was a newspaper reporter there doing a story
on the event. She spoke with all our fencers and parents. Hunter and Jasmine were
quoted in the paper the next day!

Next up, Ryan and Hunter fenced in the Y14 Epee, only 4 kids for this one. They both
came in tied for 3rd place. While the boys did Epee, Jasmine was busy with Y12 Foil. This
event actually had the most kids in it all weekend with 12 fencers. There was another girl
there, so Jasmine had some competition for women’s first place. Since most of these kids
had more experience with foil than Jasmine, she didn’t do too well in the first round of
pools. In the second round, however she decided to shake things up a bit and try some
different moves. Well, let’s just say she did much better thanks to squats! Those kids didn’
t know how to fight them and she scored loads of touches that way. She finished 7th out
of 12 in the overall and 2nd in the women’s.

Day 2

Sunday morning… 6:45am is way to early to be up …. I picked up Zoe, Meg and Jessie
(“The Angels”) at the school to take them to Greensboro for Women’s Sabre. The angels
had some tough competition, and Jessie ended up 2nd out of 7. Zoe and Meg ended 6th
& 7th respectively. Jasmine fenced Y12 Epee in the morning with 8 competitors (2 girls).
She finished 8th overall and 2nd in women’s. In the afternoon, Jasmine fenced Y12 Sabre
like her life depended on it. There were 6 competitors (she was the only girl again). She
came in 2nd overall and 1st in women’s.

After watching all the events and seeing the reactions from the other adults there, I now
truly appreciate all the training and hard work that Blake and the other coaches do with
our students. Our students were the only ones in the venue to use any of the following
moves during their fencing: digs, rothchilds, skyhook, squats and shutter steps. Everyone
I spoke with complimented them on their footwork and fencing style.

Summary of Results:

Y14 Sabre (8 competitors)                      Y14 Epee (4 competitors)           Y12 Foil (12
competitors)

Ethan      3                                            Ryan         3                              Jasmine     7
(overall)

Ryan       5                                            Hunter       3                                               1
(womens)

Hunter     6

Jasmine 7

Womens Sabre (7 competitors)               Y12 Epee (8 competitors)           Y12 Sabre (6
competitors)

Jessie     2                                            Jasmine 8 (overall)                   Jasmine     2
(overall)

Zoe         6                                                          2 (womens)                                 1
(womens)

Meg        7