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| OK, build it and they will come. Well, we didn't build the mall but we did try to build a cool tournament and bring fencing to the masses in Gastonia, NC. One of our fencing competitors was from Gastonia and told us in the 45 years that he has lived there this would have been the last thing that he would have expected to see in Gastonia and he thought it was great!!!! Over the weekend we had 9 for women's epee. Won by Ashley Murphy from SC. The match that will be remembered as the twin final. The mixed epee saw 32 fencers and a surprise guest from PA show up, Brad Baker. He said he got up on Friday morning and said hey, I think I'll go south for the weekend and see what this mall thing is all about. Plus he has just moved into a new house and was looking for some interior decorations. What would look better in a house of fencers but a nice big sword on the wall. Yeah, he won the event in a exciting final with our own Will Yoder who earned his C05 this weekend. We also would like to congratulate the new ratings earned by Kevin Ziechmann (C05), Matt Parmer (D05) and Eddie Smith (E05). Mixed foil had 21 fencers and was won by Todd Sullivan from GA. He earned his C05 and proved, you can't touch that. Then on Sunday we had our big (44 fencers) sabre event. It could have been bigger but when we pasted the 40 mark a lot of people including Blake stepped out in order to make sure things ran smooth. Women went first where we had 8 this time with our own Karen Blakeborough taking the sword home. Then in the open Bobby won a very exciting final against Chris Cheney. The event started as an A2 but two of the top fencers met in the 16 so that it became a B2. Maybe next month will be a little different. Well, in all not a bad turnout for the first tournament of the season. We will see what next month brings when we have the second Westfield Mall Challenge. |
