Bulletin for the Week of Feb. 15, 2010

1. The club sweatshirt order is in. Please pick up your sweatshirts and jackets from me at practice this week or next.

Schedule for next few weeks:
Rest of this week (Feb. 17-18): normal Level 3 practices. Note: no rental equipment available in Middlebury this Wednesday.
Next week (Feb. 22-25): Monday practice is at the Bridge School. All evening classes as regularly scheduled (we do not break at the same time as the public schools).
Tues Feb. 23: NO Jr Team practice in Middlebury in the afternoon. The school is only available before 3 p.m. and several of you are away anyway. We will make this one up on March 16 (the last Tues afternoon practice). There IS normal evening classes/practice in Charlotte. The following week: No practice in Charlotte on Tues March 2 (custodial staff is shorthanded and needs more time to clean up from Town Meeting). That class will be made up later in the month.

2. Champlain Cup tournament this Saturday, Feb. 20 at Sharon Academy. Upper Valley Open event schedule:
10 a.m. Open Foil, E epee
2 p.m. Open Epee, E foil

E events are restricted to fencers rated E or unrated. They are a great opportunity for less experienced competitors to fence eachother, and for earning new ratings. All events require USFA membership (you can join at the tournament) and all fencers must be born 1996 or earlier. Even if you missed the $10 discount deadline (2/15), please sign up on AskFRED if you plan to come. It is very important to the organizers to know how many to expect, so we can plan to bring the appropriate equipment and line up the necessary number of refs. To sign up, get directions, and see who else is coming, go to: www.askfred.net/Events/whoIsComing.php?tournament_id=10285

3. The Green Mt Division Jr Olympians return from Memphis after 4 long days of fencing. While no-one earned national points (top 32) this year, all had small victories and moments to be proud of. Here's the report on our barnstormers:

Junior Mens Foil (205 competitors, inc. 117 As and Bs)
68. Ben Hogan
169. David Parker
184. Ethan Yu

Junior Womens Foil (145 competitors, inc. 55 As and Bs)
105. Sarah Looby

Junior Mens Epee (208 competitors, inc. 134 As and Bs)
18. Adam Watson
68. Ambrose Granizo-Mackenzie
186. Chris Hogan
206. Skyler Crossman

Junior Womens Epee (172 competitors, inc. 74 As and Bs)
64. Charlotte Treadwell
112. Megan Lind
166. Caroline Jones

Cadet Mens Foil (198 competitors, inc. 55 As and Bs)
99. Ethan Yu
117. David Parker
180. Zac Young
186. Ashton Alvarez
187. Ben Brisson

Cadet Womens Foil (179 competitors, inc. 21 As and Bs)
100. Zoe Granizo-Mackenzie
151. Olivia Hern
158. Sarah Looby

Cadet Mens Epee (222 competitors, inc. 65 As and Bs)
74. Skyler Crossman
87. Wyatt Moreton
105. Ambrose Granizo-Mackenzie
165. Zac Young
222. Lucas Hilker

Cadet Womens Epee (167 competitors, inc. 37 As and Bs)
82. Charlotte Treadwell
119. Caroline Jones
129. Zoe Granizo-Mackenzie

Understanding the format of national tournaments: Each event begins with a round of pools (6-7 fencers per pool). Based on their records in pools (first percentage of bouts won, then touches scored minus touches received), fencers are ranked after the pool round and the bottom 20% of the field is cut immediately. Typically, you must win at least 2 of your pool bouts to make the cut. The remaining fencers are seeded into a DE table. For all the events at JOs, this was an incomplete table of 256, meaning the top fencers automatically advanced into the round of 128, while the bottom fencers had to fight it out to move up. Half of the field was eliminated in the round of 128, with 64 fencers advancing and places 65-128 (DE losers) ranked based on their initial seed into DEs (i.e. their pool results). So a single bout won or lost in a pool, or a few points here and there could mean the difference between finishing 65th or 128th. In the next DE round, 32 fencers were eliminated, and the eliminated fencers place of finish determined the same way (by initial seed - so if a higher seeded fencer is upset, he finishes higher in that bracket, while if a lower seeded fencers pulls off an upset and then loses in the next round, he finishes lower). The top 32 fencers earn national ranking points (used to select national teams). The next round of DE bouts narrows the field to 16, and then to 8 (the finalists), then to 4 (the gold, silver and bronze medalists), and then 2, who fence eachother for gold and silver. Typically, at events of this size, the top 8 finishers earn (or in most cases, re-earn) an A rating, and places 9-16 a B (although most of them are usually already As).

Performance of the Week: Last year, at her first JOs, Charlotte barely made the cut into DEs in the junior event, and, thinking she would do better in cadet, put too much pressure on herself and finished dead last (well, somebody has to, and it's generally the new kids...). This year, the schedule was different and the cadet womens epee event came up first. Now a far more experienced competitor, Charlotte went 4-2 in her pool, improving as she went along, and got a bye into the round of 128. Her first DE was against a fencer seeded just a few places below her, and she lost 15-14 after a hard fought battle. Junior womens epee (the older and tougher age group) came 2 days later. Charlotte got off to a slow start, struggling to find her groove and get in the zone. She found herself with a 1-5 record with one bout remaining and one last chance to make the cut into DEs. That bout was against a fine A-rated lefty (who would eventually finish 7th overall). Where a lesser mortal might have shrugged her shoulders and said "oh well", Charlotte gave herself permission to try to win. She had studied this opponent as she destroyed everyone else in the pool and decided that the only place she was really vulnerable was the wrist. She was totally focussed on distance and on seizing every opportunity when her opponent's wrist was open, while making many misleading false attacks to other targets. By getting up by one point and taking double touches, Charlotte won 5-4. She began DEs seeded 131st. Her first bout was against a fencer a few places above her. At first, Charlotte tried to hit her opponent's body and got hit by a lot of stop hits, so that she was trailing by 3 or 4 points at the end of the first period. I advised her to make beat attacks to the arm instead. She went out there and executed perfectly, winning 15-13. That brought her into the round of 128, where she faced the #3 seed (and 18th ranked junior epeeist in the country). Rather than be intimidated, Charlotte saw the supposed mismatch as an excuse to have fun and be creative. Fencing freely and joyfully, Charlotte started to rack up points with all manner of attacks, while her opponent became more and more nervous and fearful of trying anything. Finally, in the 3rd period, her opponent had no choice but to attack since she was behind, but by that time, Charlotte was an unstoppable force of nature. Her opponent struggled to find any opportunity for initiative, but did manage to narrow the gap to 1 point with a few seconds left. Charlotte knew her opponent had no choice but to fleche, and calmly put her point in line to get a couple of double touches as the clock ran out on what might have been the biggest upset of the entire Junior Olympics. Charlotte told us one of her favorite quotes is "whoever said nothing is impossible has not tried to slam a revolving door". This came pretty darn close though! Unfortunately, Charlotte's next opponent was watching the whole drama unfold and came in with a solid game plan involving parry-ripostes in order to beat Charlotte 15-13 in the round of 64.

Honorable Mentions: This was Ben Hogan's final national tournament as a junior, and he found himself in a pool with the kid who eliminated him last year (18th ranked junior in the US and former national cadet team member). He would face this rival last. He started off strong and focussed, leaving a string of defeated opponents in his wake and making some of the B and C rated fencers in his pool look downright slow. However, one of the less experienced fencers in the pool had a talent for dodging attacks, and both Ben and the other A-rated fencer rushed theirs, missed a lot, and lost to that kid. So it was not only a matter of revenge, but necessesity to win the pool for Ben to beat his rival. He knew from experience that if he gave an inch, his opponent would take a mile. Ben was the boss of the bout from beginning to end, determining when and where the action would take place, and won 5-2. He was seeded 27th going into DEs and got a bye into the round of 128. His opponent was a lower seeded but very capable fencer (from a fine club in Rochester that produces smart fencers) and the bout was a challenge from the beginning. Unfortunately, Ben made a few unwise counterattacks early on and also failed to note that the ref was very particular about arm extension getting right of way. With the score at 14-14, Ben made what he thought would be called a simultaneous attack, in order to prevent his opponent from starting a marching attack. But the ref felt that the other kid had extended his arm and Ben had not and called it against Ben. I've seen many fencers who would have had a meltdown at that point, but I was proud of what a gentleman Ben was in the face of a disappointing loss on a questionable call. He had the good grace to congratulate his opponent and shake hands with the ref, before asking the ref privately and politely to explain his call. He set a great example to his teammates by letting them know the loss was his responsibility (for making a few critical mistakes, including not adjusting to the ref).

In cadet mens foil, Ethan went 3-3 in his pool and won his first DE handily. He then faced an A-rated fencer (who would eventually finish 7th) and gave him a very strong challenge, fencing actively and creatively before losing 15-13. David seemed a bit nervous and had trouble getting his point on, winning just 2 pool bouts. But he redeemed himself with a strong 15-9 victory over a higher seeded fencer to make the 128, before losing to one of the top seeds. As JO newbies, Ashton, Ben Brisson and Zac lost all of their pool bouts, but put up a decent fight against more experienced competitors. In cadet womens foil, only Zoe made it out of the pool round (with a 3-3 record), but Olivia made it a point of pride to win her last pool bout so she wouldn't be completely blanked at her first JOs. Sarah went 0-6 in the cadet event, but a couple of days later, she was more active and aggressive, winning 2 bouts in the junior event and getting to fence a DE.

In cadet womens epee, JO first timer Caroline went a respectable 2-4 and won her first DE before losing to a eventual finalist. Zoe went 2-4 and lost her first DE. In junior mens epee, Ambrose had a very good 5-1 pool record before being upset in his first DE. He went 5-1 in the cadet event too, but fenced better in DEs, winning his first one. Chris had a 1-6 pool record with an unfortunate number of 5-4 losses that kept him out of DEs. Skyler seemed a bit in shock at the level of fencing in the junior event, losing all of his bouts, but after watching a lot of high level fencing, he did much better in cadet, going 4-2 in his pool. Adam went 6-0 in his pool, but lost a 15-14 heartbreaker in the round of 32. Wyatt went 4-2, and lost his 2nd DE in overtime after an exciting comeback effort. Zac had a similar experience to Charlotte - he had only 1 cadet epee victory under his belt and his last chance was against the A-rated fencer in his pool. Zac used his long reach to get ahead by 1 point, then stayed at a big distance to run out the clock for a 2-1 win. In his DE, he was a little reckless at first and got hit by stop hits. At the end, he adjusted and started attacking the arm to make a good comeback run, but his opponent eaked out a 15-14 victory. As this was the 3rd tournament of his life (he qualified due to several cadets having qualified automatically in our junior qualifier event), Lucas finished dead last. But he had a great attitude and enjoyed watching a lot of excellent fencing. He's already looking forward to trying to follow in Charlotte's footsteps.