The Dallas Fencers Club Team Blog

Another National Champion at the Dallas Fencers Club!

2010-07-07T04:42:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Erica Zhao, the 2010 Youth 14 Women's Saber National Champion!

Erica is having a fantastic year at Nationals, she placed 9th in Cadet Women's Saber and 32nd in Division 1A Women's Saber as well!

Medals from the team event at the Saber Cave

2009-09-19T19:09:00.001-07:00

2009-09-19T19:07:00.001-07:00

Connor and jason at the saber cave

2009-09-19T12:22:00.001-07:00

Mostly Full Results from Nationals

2009-07-13T06:42:00.000-07:00

This years national championship was a huge success for the club, two national champions and a total of 22 top 32 finishes! I had to limit this post just to top 32 finishes because we had even more who made the initial cut after pools, but didn't advance to the 32. Here are the results:
National Champions
Blake Gordon 2009 Youth 14 National Champion
Waldek Czaja 2009 Veteran 40 National Champion
National Finalists
Arden Youngblood 2nd Place Division 1A Women's Saber
Jason Meng 3rd Place Youth 12 Men's Saber
Women's Junior Team Saber 8th Place
Top 32 Finishes
Henry Uldall 30th in Division 3 Men's Epee
Marshall Honaker 14th in Youth 12 Men's Epee
Khalil Lacy 13th in Youth 10 Men's Epee
John Shanks 12th in Veterans 40 Men's Foil
Mason Mitchell 19th in Division 1A Men's Saber
Blake Gordon 24th in Division 2 Men's Saber
Jason Meng 32nd in Youth 14 Men's Saber
Khai-Leif Nguyen-Hille 14th in Youth 10 Men's Saber
Mason Mitchell 30th in Junior Men's Saber
Connor Gibson 12th in Cadet Men's Saber
Senior Men's Saber Team 11th Place
Junior Men's Saber Team 12th Place
Avery Youngblood 10th in Division 2 Women's Saber
Erica Zhao 15th in Division 2 Women's Saber
Erica Zhao 19th in Division 3 Women's Saber
Isabella So 22nd in Youth 14 Women's Saber
Avery Youngblood 17th in Cadet Women's Saber
Senior Team Women's Saber 10th Place

The Champ and his fan club!

2009-07-12T13:51:00.001-07:00

Another National Champion!

2009-07-12T13:50:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to our coach Waldek Czaja, who won the Veterans 40 Saber event at the National Championships!

The 2009 Men's Youth 14 Saber National Champion!

2009-07-06T05:50:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Blake Gordon on winning the National Championship this year! With 137 fencers competing Blake was able to fence great in the pools and was flawless in the direct eliminations! I'll post some pictures as soon as I can track some down!

Connor at the National Championships

2009-07-04T08:14:00.001-07:00

At the Cadet Saber event at the National Championships in Grapevine TX! Connor finished 12th out of 115! I'll post the rest of the results as they come in.

Pictures from the Dallas World Cup

2009-06-23T06:47:00.000-07:00

Here is the first batch of pictures from the World Cup event at the Dallas Downtown Sheraton. The competitors were among the best in the world, and included several former Olympic medalists.

Medals at the Gold Blade C and under.

2009-04-11T11:42:00.001-07:00

Congratulations to Doug and Connor for the medals they earned this weekend! Doug finished 3rd and Connor finished 7th! Connor also earned his E in Epee, not bad for his first tournament fencing Epee!

Results from the past few weeks

2009-03-31T08:11:00.000-07:00

Its been a big couple of weeks for DFC! First off Marshall took first place in the Y12 Epee at the Arnold Schwarzenegger Fencing Classic in Columbus Ohio! He got a nice medal and got to meet Arnold! Then this past weekend there was an RYC event in Houston, Khai-Lief took the silver in the Y10 Saber and 6th in the Y12 Saber! Marshall took 6th in the Y12 epee. Khalil got the silver in the Y10 epee, and it was his first big tournament! Kierstyn Barnes had our best result for the event though with a first place in the Y14 Women's epee!

Three more medals!

2008-12-06T13:00:00.001-08:00

Some pictures from the Wang Memorial

2008-11-03T10:29:00.001-08:00

The Wang Memorial

2008-11-01T10:07:00.001-07:00

The club had a big weekend at the Wang Memorial this past weekend. The official results are not completely posted yet but here are some highlights. Khai-Lief won the Y10 Men's Saber, Jason Meng won the Y14 Men's Saber, Erica Zhao took a bronze in the Y14 Women's Saber, Blake Gordon won the Men's Saber, and Mason Mitchell took the Silver, Cait and Arden tied for third in the Women's Saber. We also had a lot of really strong showings from the rest of the team, Connor Gibson was 9th in the Men's Saber, and Avery was 7th in the Women's Saber. We are still waiting on the final results from the Youth Epee events, but in the Men's Epee events Henry Uldall finished 24th, Doug White was 29th and I was 32nd, not bad for our first tournament in Epee!

A big day at the Adelman Memorial!

2008-09-14T12:27:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Connor and Blake! They finished first and second at the Adelman Memorial this weekend! Connor also earned his B rating with this win!

Fencing in Sweden!

2008-09-05T06:59:00.000-07:00

This summer two of our club members had the opportunity to do some fencing in Sweden. While on vacation Connor Gibson and myself spent some time in Linköping home to Linköpings fäktklubb, one of the few clubs in Sweden that has Saber fencers. We would like to say thank you to Jonas and Carl and everyone we fenced with at the club, we had a fantastic time! Here are some of the pictures from the two nights we fenced there:

More news from Nationals!

2008-07-11T13:56:00.001-07:00

Congratulations to Mason Mitchell, he finished 10th out of 92 fencers in Division 3 Men's Saber! I'll post some pictures as soon as I can.

Pictures and video from the national Championships!

2008-07-08T12:47:00.001-07:00

Connor winning a bout in the Y14 pools

Blake winning a bout in the Y14 pools

Connor coming from behind to win a bout in the Cadet event

Here are some pictures from our side trips on the days between events. We made it out to Chinatown, Little Italy, and the Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco on the 4th of July but headed back into San Jose for the fireworks because there was a lot of fog in San Francisco, on the 5th we went to the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose. It was nice to get so much sightseeing done in our down time.

Results from the National Championships!

2008-07-08T12:18:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to everyone that fenced this past weekend in San Jose! The club did great and we had a fantastic time! A special thanks to all the parents who made this trip possible, we couldn't have done it without you!

The Junior Men's team of Connor Gibson, Blake Gordon and team captain, Mason Mitchell had a strong showing against the Medeo Fencers Club team, but eventually lost 45 to 30. Our final ranking was 21st, which is great, especially when you consider that the Medeo team was so strong they had the winner of the Cadet event, Micheal Mills, as their back up fencer! He didn't event start!!!

In the individual events we had a strong showing as well as some tough draws. In youth 14 men's saber, Connor drew Will Spear, the number one ranked Y14 fencer in the country to get into the top 8, Connor was eliminated and Will went on to win the event. Connor's high seeding out of the pools gave him 10th place in the final rankings. Our friends from Houston also did great! Chris Ahn seeded 4th in Y14 after a fantastic round in the pools and finished 17th overall after the direct eliminations! Avery Youngblood also had a great tournament, she actually did better in the Cadet event, than in her own age group event! Her final rank in Cadets was 26th which will give her a lot of national points! Cait Schneider only had one event at nationals this year but has apparently sparked the interest of some college scouts, more on that as the details become available!

Here are the individual results we have so far;
Mason Mitchell:
27th out of 118 in Division 2 Men's Saber
48th out of 110 in Cadet Men's Saber
Avery Youngblood:
26th out of 81 in Cadet Women's Saber (also earns more national Cadet points!)
35th out of 80 in Youth 14 Women's Saber
Blake Gordon:
49th out of 118 in Division 2 Men's Saber
40th out of 127 in Youth 14 Men's Saber
Cait Schneider:
63rd out of 87 in Junior Women's Saber
Connor Gibson:
53rd out of 110 in Cadet Men's Saber
10th out of 127 in Youth 14 Men's Saber

A packed house for the first summer camp!

2008-07-06T12:15:00.000-07:00

Live from the National Championships in San Jose California!

2008-07-02T13:21:00.001-07:00

Connor won this bout as well as a whole bunch more!

Gold and Silver at the DeGall Memorial!

2008-06-08T13:12:00.001-07:00

Congratulations to Connor and Mason for their fantastic finishes at The DeGall Memorial this weekend! They both defeated B rated fencers to get to the gold medal match. They also renewed their own ratings with this finish. Connor is now a C08 and Mason a D08!

Results from the North American Cup in Portland!

2008-04-28T09:17:00.000-07:00

The club had another fantastic showing at the North American Cup in Portland! We sent 4 fencers, two won medals and the other two scored national points! In the Youth 14 Women's Saber Avery Youngblood finished 6th. In the Youth 14 Men's Saber Connor Gibson also placed 6th! Pictures from the medal podium will be posted soon. Blake Gordon and Khai-Leif Nguyen-Hille both made the top 32 in their events and will earn points for their national rankings! I'd also like to congratulate our friends from Houston, Chris Ahn finished 14th in the Youth 14 Men's Saber!

More pictures from The Houston Super Youth Circuit

2008-04-28T09:12:00.000-07:00

These are of Khai-Leif in the Youth 10 and Youth 12 Men's event. He won the bronze in the Youth 10 event!

Qualifying for the National Championship

2008-04-07T07:22:00.000-07:00

This weekend Blake and Mason both qualified for Division 2 Men's Saber at the Nationals! Avery qualified for Division 2 Women's Saber also! So far the club has qualified for a lot of events!

For Junior Team we qualified a Men's and Women's team. For Youth 14 Men's Saber Connor and Blake are both qualified. For Y14 Women's Saber Avery is qualified. Arden has qualified for Junior and Cadet Women's Saber. Connor, Nathan and Mason are qualified for Cadet Men's Saber. Jason, Kai-Lief, and Evan are all qualified for Youth 12 Men's Saber, and Allie is qualified for Youth 12 Women's Saber!

And we still have two more qualifying events to go! It looks like we will have quite a crowd at San Jose this summer!

Medals at the Oz Parson

2008-03-29T18:06:00.001-07:00

Update! On Sunday the kids took home two more medals! Cait Schneider finished second in the Women's Saber! Arden Youngblood finished third and her sister Avery finished 7th.

As you can see from the picture this tournament it s little different, they give out decorative swords and daggers for the top 3 in each event. That always makes this event a favorite with out club! First place got a cavelry saber, second gets a short sword and third gets daggers. (thankfully none of them are sharpend!)

Pictures and video from the Super Youth Circuit!

2008-03-17T08:18:00.001-07:00

Blake v. Chris Ahn part 1

Blake v. Chris Ahn part 2

Connor winning a bout in the pools

More medals at the Super Youth Circuit in Houston!

2008-03-16T15:11:00.001-07:00

Congratulations to all our kids who competed in the SYC in Houston! Connor Gibson repeated his performance from last year and took home the gold in the Y14 Saber! Blake Gordon improved his performance from last year to take the silver medal in the Y14 Saber. Jason Meng took home a Silver in the Y12 event, Khai-Leif Nguyen-Hille took home the bronze in the Y10 event! Allie Gordon took home a Silver in the Y12 Womens Saber and finished 7th in the Y14 Womens Saber!

Old students back for a visit!

2008-03-11T19:17:00.000-07:00

Jared stopped by the club last night, he's on spring break from Haverford College. He said school is going great, and the fencing team had a pretty good season considering they had a couple seniors graduate. He should have been fencing in the NCAA championship this weekend but he injured his ankle durring a bout with Penn State and couldn't compete. He was however well enough to play some horse with Connor and Coach Czaja!

Results and Videos from the Junior Olympics in Charlotte N.C.

2008-02-21T07:49:00.000-08:00

We had a fantastic showing at the Junior Olympics! Arden finished 8th out of 129 in the Cadet Women's saber! That raised her up to 28th in the nation in her age group! Connor and Mason both made the top 32 in Cadet Men's Saber! Those finishes put them both on the Cadet national rankings, in 43rd and 45th place! The Cadet points also put Connor up to 7th place in the Youth 14 national ranking!
Here are some videos from the event:
Connor winning a bout in the pools

Blake winning a bout in the pools

Connor v Choy in the pools

Medals in the Women's Saber at the Poujardeau!

2008-01-26T21:40:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Arden and Avery for their medals in the Women's Saber event this weekend! Arden finished 3rd and Avery finished 6th!

Three Medals in the Mixed Saber event at the Poujardeau!

2008-01-26T21:39:00.001-08:00

Congratulations to Connor, Arden and Christian for their top 8 finishes in the Mixed Saber event. Christian had a flight to catch so I didn't get him in the picture.
Connor placed 5th
Arden placed 6th
Christian placed 8th

The rest of the club did really good too, Mason, Olivia and Avery were all in the top 16!

Results from the Dallas Regional Youth Circuit!

2008-01-18T07:06:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to all our medalists at the Dallas RYC! Blake Gordon won another Gold in the Youth 14 Mixed Saber, Jason Meng won took home a Bronze in the 14's and the Gold in the Youth 12 Mixed Saber. Allie Gordon took the Bronze in the Youth 12 Mixed, and as the highest ranked woman she got the Gold for the Women's ranking!

Thanks for a wonderful camp!

2008-01-07T09:07:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Coach Czaja and Coach Ivanoff for a great training camp this winter! It was great to have all the Houston fencers up here for training! We are looking forward to the next camp down in Houston. Here are some pictures from the camp, the videos will be uploaded soon.

Blogging live from the Winter Training Camp!

2008-01-04T16:43:00.000-08:00

Videos from the JO qualifiers

2007-12-22T07:28:00.000-08:00

Mason winning a bout in the pools:

Mason winning again:

Connor winning a direct elimination bout:

Connor winning again:

Connor v. Andrew from Renaissance in Plano:

A big day at the Junior Olympic Qualifiers!

2007-12-17T08:21:00.001-08:00

We had quite a day at the Junior Olympic Qualifiers on Sunday!
For the Women's Saber Cait, Arden and Avery are all qualified!
For the Men's Saber Nick, Nathan, Mason, Connor and Blake all qualified!

Nathan getting his bronze at the NAC

2007-11-29T20:49:00.000-08:00

It's a little blurry but Nathan is third from the end in the red jacket. Nathan's 3rd place boosts him up to 11th in the nation in the Cadet Men's Saber ranking!

The results are in from the Dallas North American Cup

2007-11-13T12:17:00.000-08:00

This turned out to be a great tournament for the kids! We took home two medals and seven of our kids earned national points!

Nathan Cho tied for 3rd place in the Cadet Men's Saber event, and Connor Gibson finished 7th in the Youth 14 Men's Saber event. Nathan's 3rd place also earned him a B rating!

Five other kids had top 32 finishes which gives them points on the national rankings!
Blake Gordon finished 13th in the Youth 14 Men's Saber
Avery Youngblood finished 13th in the Youth 14 Women's Saber
Arden Youngblood finished 20th in the Junior Women's Saber
Cait Schneider finished 24th in the Cadet Women's Saber
Nick Schneider finished 30th in the Cadet Men's Saber

Congratulations on a job well done!

Pictures and video from the Dallas NAC

2007-11-12T18:43:00.000-08:00

Connor winning a bout in the direct eliminations
Avery winning a bout in the pools in Y14

Cait winning a bout in the pools in the Juniors

Arden winning a bout in the pools in the Juniors

Some early results from Dallas!

2007-11-12T05:06:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Cait Schneider, Avery Youngblood and Connor Gibson! Cait finished 24th in the Cadet Women's Saber, which will give her a lot of national points! Avery finished 13th in the Youth 14 women's saber, which puts her on the national points list for the first time! Connor finished 7th in the Youth 14 men's saber, so he took home a medal and a whole lot of points on the national rankings!

Getting in some practice before the event in Dallas

2007-11-10T10:59:00.000-08:00

Getting ready for the North American Cup tomorrow, here in Dallas

2007-11-08T17:52:00.000-08:00

Some pictures from Tucson

2007-10-10T07:32:00.000-07:00

More results from Tucson!

2007-10-08T09:50:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Blake Gordon for finishing 7th in Division 2 Men's Saber! That is a fantastic finish and it earned him a "C" rating! Also congratulations to Cait Schneider for her 19th place finish in Cadet Women's Saber! That will earn her lots of points for her national ranking!

Results from the Tucson NAC

2007-10-07T11:03:00.000-07:00

The first results are in from the Tucson North American Cup and we have had some fantastic finishes! Nick Schneider finished 12th in the Cadet Men's Saber and Nathan Cho finished 14th! that will be a lot of national points for both of them! Connor Gibson placed 49th and Mason Mitchel finished 54th out of 123 fencers! Not bad for their first time at Tucson! The only women's events fenced so far have been Division 2 and Division 3 Saber. In Division 2 Cait finished 16th, in Division 3 Arden Youngblood finished 33rd and her sister Avery finished 59th. Those are great finishes, especially considering that those aren't event the primary events they are their to fence! I'll update the post when I know the Women's Cadet Saber results.

Pictures from the southwest section cup in Houston

2007-10-05T13:29:00.001-07:00

More results from Houston

2007-09-29T15:11:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Blake Gordon, who finished 7th in the Men's Saber at the Southwest Section Circuit Cup!
Also congratulations to Cait, who won the Women's Saber event! If anyone has a picture from the event please post it. I wasn't able to attend on Sunday so I didn't get a picture from the medal presentation.

First place in the Youth 12 Saber at the Southwest Section Circuit Cup in Houston!

2007-09-29T11:58:00.001-07:00

Jason had a fantastic day in Houston! He went undefeated through the pools to seed first, and ended up taking home the first place trophy!

More results from Poland!

2007-09-18T06:25:00.000-07:00

The team events were yesterday, The U.S.A fielded 3 teams all of them made the top 8! Nathan fenced on U.S.A 3, which finished 7th. They had a buy their first round and then defeated a Hungarian team 45 to 38! Their next bout was against U.S.A 1, who defeated them and then went on to fence a Russian team. They lost to the Russians 45 to 42 and had to fence U.S.A 2 for the bronze. U.S.A 1 defeated U.S.A 2 45 to 36. The Russians that defeated U.S.A 1 took the gold. Over all thats a fantastic showing for all three teams! It must have been hard work for Waldek too, having to coach 3 teams at the same time, and having them fence each other twice in direct eliminations! So congratulations to team U.S.A and a special thanks to Waldek for all his great coaching!

The full team results are here

Results from Poland

2007-09-17T07:46:00.001-07:00

The results are in from the Cadet World Cup in Poland. The U.S. team did well with 5 fencers finishing in the top 16! Nathan ended up finishing 50th out of 145 fencers. He won his first direct elimination bout against Ilia Moiseev, but lost his next one against 22nd ranked Efim Gofman from St. Petersburg. Not bad for his first international tournament!
The full results can be found here

Back in the states we had a local tournament in Waco this weekend too. As usually we had some great results! Blake Gordon finished 2nd and Connor Gibson finished 7th!

Nathan's on the National Team!

2007-08-29T11:03:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Nathan Cho, all his hard work has paid off! Nathan was selected to compete on the U.S. National team for Cadet Saber! His first international event will be in Konin Poland September 15th and 16th. The next event is in Godollo Hungary in October and after that we don't know the schedule yet. We'll keep the site updated with Nathans results, in the mean time lets all help him out by fencing him as hard as we can so he gets plenty of practice before the events.
Nathan's the one in the white shirt for those that haven't met him yet.

Some pictures from The National Championships in Miami.

2007-07-10T07:27:00.000-07:00

They are a bit blurry because I couldn't use the flash, and I am not sure how to manually control the settings on my new camera yet. I think they turned out good though.

Great results at the National Championship again!

2007-07-09T08:54:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Blake Gordon for his fantastic finish in the Youth 12 Men's Saber event at the National Championship in Miami! Blake finished 6th out of 101 competitors. Blake also did great in the Youth 14 Saber where he finished 24th. Both those finishes will score him a lot of national points, so he should move way up the national rankings!

Blake wasn't the only one who did great at nationals though. Blake's sister Allie finished 32nd in the Women's Youth 12 Saber. Nathan Cho finished 17th in the Cadet Saber event and 28th in Division 2! Connor Gibson finished 18th in the Youth 14 Saber, and 44th in the Cadet Saber. Jason Meng finished 12th in the Youth 10 Saber event and 29th in the Youth 12 event. Arden Youngblood finished 37th in the Youth 14 Women's Saber, 38th in the Women's Cadet Saber event and 41st in the Women's Junior Saber. Her sister Avery finished 45th in the Youth 14 Women's Saber. Cait Schneider finished 35th in the Cadet Women's Saber and 59th in the Junior Women's Saber. Her brother Nick finished 30th in the Cadet Men's Saber. Mason Mitchell finished 40th in the Youth 14 Men's Saber and 58th in the Cadet Saber, and George Neal finished 49th in the Youth 14 Men's Saber.

And finally, this was the first year we sent a team for the Junior Team event, and we did great. Nick Schneider was team captain, and the rest of the team was Mason, Nathan and George. The team finished 13th after defeating the Knights of Siena team from South Carolina. We had a tough draw for the next match when we faced The Peter Westbrook Foundation. The Westbrook team ended up finishing 2nd by only one point! All in all it was a fantastic showing for our first time out as a team at Nationals.

So congratulations to all the kids who competed this year, congratulations to coach for the great job he does every week with the kids that makes these results possible, and a special thanks to all the parents who help make this possible for all the kids. Also parents, if you have any pictures from the event email them to me and I'll get them posted in our gallery.

Things to do in Florida between events at Nationals

2007-05-18T13:08:00.001-07:00

As the native Floridian at the club I thought I'd put together a list of things to do near Summer Nationals.

Vizcaya
Day Cruises out of Ft. Lauderdale
Cruise to the Bahamas
Drift fishing

Of the drift boats I have been on the Helen S and on Sea Legs III, both were good. Last time on the Helen S Connor caught the 2nd biggest fish on the boat! It was a nice sized Blue Runner

New National Rankings!

2007-04-25T14:30:00.000-07:00

The new national rankings are posted on the USFA site. The club did fantastic! In the Cadet Saber Nathan Cho ranked 14th in the men's and Cait Schneider ranked 23rd! In the Youth 14 Saber Connor Gibson is 15th, Mason Mitchell is 20th, George Neal is 44th and Blake Gordon is 51st for the men, in the women's ranking Arden Youngblood ranked 12th and Avery Youngblood ranked 23rd! In Youth 12 Saber Blake Gordon ranked 9th in the nation for men and in Youth 10 Saber Jason Meng ranked 6th in the nation!

I can't say enough how proud we all are of our fencers! To have 10 nationally ranked fencers in the club at one time! All of you deserve a big congratulations for all your hard work!

DFC Alumni in the news!

2007-04-23T08:35:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to give everyone an update on how Jared did as a freshman on the Haverford fencing team. He finished 6th at the MACFA Conference championship and 20th at the NCAA Mid Atlantic/South Regional Championship! Also his team was undefeated at Dual Meets this season! Not bad for his first year! You can read more about the team at the Haverford fencing website.

The North American Cup in Tucson

2007-04-23T08:07:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Blake Gordon! Blake finished 5th in the Youth 12 men's saber at the North American Cup tournament in Tucson! He also finished 30th in the Youth 14 event! Also Congratulations to Blake's sister Allie who finished 19th in the Women's Youth 12 saber event!
Update!
The results from the youth 10 events are in and Jason Meng won the Silver in the men's saber event! Congratulations Jason!

Scarborough faire

2007-04-23T08:04:00.000-07:00

Connor, George, Mason and Nick went down to the Renaissance Festival this weekend.

Great results at the Oz Parsons!

2007-04-16T14:17:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Nick! Nick Schneider won the men's saber event this weekend, not only did he take home a really nice sword for a trophy the points he earned also put him into second place in the southwest section circuit cup standings for the season!
Also in the men's saber, Nathan and Mason tied for second and Connor and George tied for 6th! With everyones finishes this season our club has 5 of the top 8 fencers in the section cup point standings!

In the women's saber Cait Schneider finished 3rd and the points she earned made her the southwest section circuit cup champion for the season!

If anyone has pictures from the event please send them to me so I can post them.

10 Medals at the Super Youth Circuit in Houston

2007-03-22T06:15:00.000-07:00

The club did fantastic at the Houston Super Youth Circuit event! Congratulations to Blake Gordon and Connor Gibson for their first place finishes! Connor won the Y14 Saber event and Blake won the Y12 Saber event. Those weren't the only medals though! In Y12 Women's Saber Allie Gordon got the bronze, in Y14 Women;s Saber Arden Youngblood got the Silver and her sister Avery got the Bronze, in Y14 Men's Saber Mason Mitchell got Silver, and in Y10 Men's Saber Jason Meng got the Silver. We also had a couple of very good top 8 finishes. Dylan Black finished 7th in the Y12 Men's Saber, George Neal finished 6th in Y14 Saber and Blake Gordon finished 8th! Since this was a SYC event all the kids who placed will earn national points!

Congratulations to Nathan Cho at the Junior Olympics in Denver!

2007-03-05T09:44:00.000-08:00

Nathan had a fantastic day in the Cadet men's saber at the Junior Olympics. He finished 22nd out of 169 fencers! Not only is that a great finish but it earned him more national points, so he is now ranked 34th in the nation in Cadet Men's Saber!

2nd Place for Nick and Cait at the SSCC #4

2007-03-04T14:22:00.001-08:00

Congratulations to Nick and Cait, they each took second place in their events! The rest of the club didn't do too bad either, all our kids finished in the top 16!

Results from the Rose Condon in Shreveport

2007-02-05T11:13:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to all our kids who went to the Rose Condon Memorial in Shreveport. Cait Schneider took home the highest place with her Silver medal in the womens saber event. In the mens saber, Nick Schneider finished 8th, Mason Mitchell finished 9th, Nathan Cho finished 10th, George Neal finished 13th, and Connor Gibson finished 17th. Not bad for a tournament that was a B2 event and had 41 fencers!

Happy Birthday to Connor

2007-01-28T16:19:00.000-08:00

Connor turned 14 on January 31st.

The Dallas Regional Youth Circuit

2007-01-27T12:06:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to George (1st), Connor (2nd) and Mason (3rd) for sweeping the medals again! Also congratulations to Blake who finished 5th, earning him his E07 rating!

Medals at the Poujardeau!

2007-01-20T17:01:00.001-08:00

Congratulations to Nick, Michael, and George for their great performanace at the 27th annual Poujardeau Memorial tournament! George finished third, Nick was 5th and Michael was 8th. Connor and Mason also made the top 16, Connor finished 9th and Mason finished 14th! No word yet on how the girls did on the second day of the competition, I'll update the blog when I know.

Father and son at practice

2007-01-18T18:14:00.000-08:00

Michael and Waldek getting ready for the Poujardeau this weekend.

Junior Olympic Qualifier Results

2006-12-15T07:55:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to George Neil who won the Cadet Saber (Under 17) qualifying event and Nick Schneider and Mason Mitchell who tied for third in the Junior Saber (Under 20) event. In the women's events Arden Youngblood won the Cadet Saber and Cait Schneider finished 3rd in the Junior Saber. All five of them are qualified for the Junior Olympics in Denver! Great job team!

The Houston Regional Youth Circuit #1

2006-11-20T06:43:00.000-08:00

It was another great weekend for the club! We took the gold in every event we entered. In the Y10 Saber Jason Meng took first, in Y12 Saber Blake Gorgon took first and in Y14 Connor Gibson took first. We didn't just take gold however, we had some really good finishes for the rest of the club. Jason Meng finished 7th and Nick Brown finished 8th in the Y12 Saber event, Blake Gordon finished 5th in the Y14 Saber event and Nick Brown placed 7th.

The 2007 Albuquerque North American Cup

2006-11-14T06:31:00.000-08:00

The 2007 North American Cup turned out fantastic! The kids had some fantastic results, plus because of the scheduling of the events everyone got to do a little sight seeing in Albuquerque. In the Women's Events Cait Schneider finished 47th out of 81 in the Juniors, and 45th out of 78 in the Cadets. Olivia Trotter finished 48th in the Cadets also. In the Men's events Nathan Cho had a fantastic finish in the Cadets, finishing 25th out of 124! He also finished 80th out of 155 in the Junior event. Nick Schneider finished 62nd in the Cadets and 58th in the Juniors. Mason Mitchell finished 14th in the Youth 14 event and 72nd in the Cadet event. Connor Gibson finished 13th in the Youth 14 event and 93rd in the Cadet event. And Blake Gordon finished 24th in the Youth 14 event.

These results are fantastic for an event of this size! This event features the top fencers from the United States and Canada and our kids were right there with them even when fencing above their age group! They did a fantastic job!

In between tournaments the kids got to visit a lot of the sites in Albuquerque, including the Petroglyphs National Monument, Sandia Peak (10,378 feet), and the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. I'll post pictures as soon as I can get them scanned into the computer, or if any one who went has some they want to post feel free to add them!

More medals at the Big D Open

2006-11-05T15:03:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Cait Schneider, who won the Women's Saber event, Christine Chow finished 3rd, Arden and Avery Youngblood who finished 5th and 11th! We also had one heck of a showing in the Men's event. Nick Schneider finished 2nd, Nathan Cho 6th and was Connor Gibson 8th! In the Youth 12 Saber event Nick Brown took the silver, Chris Hill was 5th, Dylan Black 8th and TJ Wilson finished 11th.

Great results at the Longhorn!

2006-10-25T07:37:00.000-07:00

The club had another great weekend at the Longhorn open At UT in Austin. Congratulations to everyone who took part. In the women's Saber event Cait Schneider and Olivia Trotter tied for third. It was an especially good finish for Olivia because she earned her D rating! In the Men's Saber event Nathaniel Cho finished 3rd, Connor Gibson was 5th, Nick Schneider was 7th, George Neil finished 13th, and Mason Mitchell was 23rd. Nathaniel earned his C rating in the open event. In the D and under mixed Saber event Connor Gibson got the Silver medal, Mason Mitchell and Nathaniel Cho tied for third and George Neil finished 8th. Mason Mitchell earned his D with his 3rd place finish! 9 medals and 3 new ratings is one heck of a good weekend I would say!

The Albuquerque NAC

2006-10-20T06:24:00.000-07:00

For anyone who is going to the NAC in Albuquerque, Southwest just announced another sale. It's $79 each way which is a really good deal.

A medal at the Memphis North American Cup Tournament!

2006-10-11T10:54:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Cait Schneider for her Bronze Medal in the women's Division 3 Saber event at the North American Cup in Memphis! It was a fantastic finish in an event that had 50 competitors.

The Austin Challenge, Southwest Section Circuit Cup #1

2006-10-01T08:29:00.000-07:00

The club had a fantastic showing at the Austin Challenge, with 3 medals for the boys in the men's event and the first place trophy for Cait in the women's event. In the Men's event Nathan Cho finished 3rd place, Nick Schneider finished 7th, and Mason Mitchell finished 8th. George and Connor were not far behind in 10th and 12th place. Nathan came out of the pools seeded in first and Mason upset the third seed in his second direct elimination bout.

In the Women's event Cait Schneider was seeded third after the pools and defeated the number two seed Damaris Dotson to get into the gold medal bout against the number one seed. Cait fenced great and won the bout 15 to 13!

Medals at the Lone Star Open

2006-09-27T06:14:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Blake Gordon and Chris Hill for their Medals at the Lone Star Open! Blake got the gold in both Youth 12 and Youth 14 Saber! To make things even better for the club Chris Hill got the Bronze in both those events too! The only thing that kept Chris from the gold medal bout in Youth 12 was that he had to fence Blake in the semi finals! Its always tough when you have to fence your own team members. I'll post some pictures as soon as I have them.

3 medals at the Adelman!

2006-09-11T06:44:00.000-07:00

Another fantastic weekend for the club! Nick, Nathan, Mason, Cait, Olivia and Connor competed in the Adelman at Baylor University this weekend. Connor and Nathan tied for third place and Nick won the silver. Not too bad for a bunch of Middle and High school kids at a College tournament! Nathan had by far the toughest draw in the direct elimination where he drew two B rated fencers in a row! He defeated Ray Sexton to get into the top 4 but lost to Emilio Ybarra to get to the gold medal bout. It was a fantastic finish for him, and earned him a D rating!

Back to practice

2006-08-14T17:41:00.000-07:00

School is back in session and everyone is back from vacation

The results are in!

2006-07-10T08:15:00.000-07:00

It was a fantastic year for the Dallas Fencers Club at the nationals! Here are the final results:
George Neal finished 6th in Y12 Men's Saber and 52nd in Y14 Men's Saber
Nick Schneider finished 13th in Y14 Men's Saber, 65th in U16 Men's Saber, and 64th in Division 2
Connor Gibson finished 15th in Y12 Men's Saber and 39th in Y14 Men's Saber
Cait Schneider finished 10th in Division 3 Women's Saber, 29th in Y14 Women's Saber, and 52nd in U16 Women's Saber
Nathan Cho finished 25th in Y14 Men's Saber
Mason Mitchell finished 79th in Y14 Men's Saber
Chris Hill finished 35th in Y10 Men's Saber and 74th in Y12 Men's Saber
Nick Brown finished 44th in Y12 Men's Saber
Jared Forbus finished 29th in Division 1A Men's Saber, and 70th in U19 Men's Saber

Good job George!

2006-07-03T10:46:00.000-07:00

Congratulations on your 6th place finish in the Y12 men's Saber at the National Championship!
The whole team has been doing great, the full results will be posted soon!

jareds graduation party

2006-06-01T18:33:00.000-07:00

With all his trophies

Monday fun

2006-05-08T17:59:00.000-07:00

The New National Rankings Are Posted!

2006-05-01T13:46:00.000-07:00

Congratulations are in order!
George Neal is now ranked 6th in the nation in Y12 men's Saber! A position previously held by Connor Gibson, who now ranks 7th.
You can see the complete results here: Y12 Mens Saber
In Youth 14 Nathan Cho now ranks 16th in the Nation! Just above Alex Gilbert in 17th, Nick Schneider is ranked 25th Mason Mitchell is 29th George Neal is 31st and Connor Gibson is 62nd. The complete Results are here: Y14 Mens Saber
In the Y14 womens Saber Cait Schneider if ranked 21st and Olivia Trotter is 22nd in the Nation! The complete results are here; Y14 Womens Saber

Even More Medals in Houston!

2006-05-01T06:41:00.000-07:00

In the Y14 womens Saber event Cait Schneider won the gold Medal! In the Y14 men's Saber event Nick Schneider won the Silver Medal and Nathanial Cho and George Neal tied for the Bronze medal!

I did not get a copy of the final points standings for the season in the Men's or Women's Y14 events, if anyone has that information please post it. I know Nick, Cait, Connor, Nathan, George and Alex all got Medals, but I am not sure about which places they all finished.

More medals on in Houston Sunday

2006-04-30T14:51:00.000-07:00

Sunday was another great day for the club. In the Y12 Men's Saber event we swept the Medals! The Gold went to George Neal, the Silver to Connor Gibson and the Bronze to Blake Gordon. For the season in this region we had three of the top eight fencers! George Neal finished in first place, Connor Gibson in second place, and Nick Brown finished 5th.

More medals in Houston

2006-04-29T14:06:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Jason Meng and Chris Hill. Jason won the Silver medal and Chirs won the Bronze medal in the Y10 Men's Saber event! These finishes gave Jason the Silver medal for the season in the regional point standings and Chris's 3rd place got him a third place ranking for the season giving him his second Bronze medal of the day!

How many colleges can Jared get accepted too?

2006-04-28T06:49:00.000-07:00

As some of you may know Jared has started to hear back from the colleges he applied to, here is a list of the places he has already been accepted to:
Haverford College
Davidson College
University of Texas Plan 2 (Plan 2 is the Honors program)

and he's on the waiting list for:
Columbia University
University of Pennsylvania

No word yet on which one he will choose.

So when you see him be sure to congratulate him!

Hotels for Houston

2006-04-25T06:40:00.000-07:00

We booked our Hotel last night on Priceline and got the Sheraton Gallaria which is about 5 miles from the venue for $50. I think its the same hotel we booked for the Bayou city RYC and paid $109 for, the Sheraton site lists the rooms starting at $129. So if any of you still need a room definitly check price line.

Final results from the North American Cup tournament in Sacramento.

2006-04-24T07:51:00.000-07:00

Another strong showing for the club! In the Youth 14 Saber event Nathan Cho finished 12th, which should give him a nice boost on the national rankings! The rest of the club finished well too, out of 72 fencers:
Nathan Cho 12th
George Neal 28th
Connor Gibson 34th
Mason Mitchell 37th
Blake Gordon 51st
Nick Brown 65th

For the Youth 12 men's Saber on Sunday Connor Gibson took the 5th place medal! The rest of the club had an excellent showing again! Out of 45 fencers:
Connor Gibson 5th
George Neal 12th
Jason Meng 34th
Blake Gordon 38th
Nick Brown 43rd

For the Youth 10 Men's Saber we only had one competitor, Jason Meng, who did fantastic. Jason finished in 6th place after good performance in the pools and the direct eliminations.

Houston tournament

2006-04-17T20:33:00.000-07:00

If you are interested here are the times for Y10, Y12 and Y14 saber.

Y10 Mixed Saber Sat 4/29 12:00 PM
Y14 Mixed Saber Sat 4/29 2:00 PM
Y12 Mixed Saber Sun 4/30 1:00 PM

See who's preregistered:
http://askfred.net/Events/whoIsComing.php?tournament_id=1833

Another great practice!

2006-04-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

Two more medals for the club! Again!

2006-03-28T09:26:00.000-08:00

Congrats to George and Chris in San Jose! George took 6th in the Y12 and Chris took 7th in the Y10 event! Pictures to be posted soon!

Missing Plastron

2006-03-27T19:29:00.000-08:00

Did anyone pick up an extra plastron in Colorado Springs? If you did, there is a good chance it belongs to TJ. Any help in returning the missing item to its owner is greatly appreciated. thanks.....

FAVORITE BOOK

2006-03-21T18:25:00.000-08:00

Put in your favorite book!
Nicolas Brown-Eragon and Eldest

who is everyone

2006-03-20T20:40:00.000-08:00

hi everybody, this is Jared. i couldn't resist using an alias here but i think that either people should use their real names or post here who they are so we can know who is posting things. i think its pretty obvious that James is James, but who is onlyafleshwound, for example.

anyway, i think this is a really good idea for the club and i hope everyone gets an account soon. this should help foster an even stronger community mindset.

Two more medals for the club!

2006-03-20T11:23:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Cait and Olivia for their medals in the Y14 women's saber event at Colorado! Cait took home a silver and Olivia took the bronze! If anyone has any pictures from the event please post them!

Why you should not Snowboard two days before a national competition.

2006-03-19T16:42:00.000-08:00

Connor and Alex in their class,
Connor falling badly on his wrist
A picture of Connor standing up, just to prove he actually knows how to ride....
Connor at the ski patrol, not buying my suggestion to amputate and get a hook for a hand.

Alex wins a medal

2006-03-19T16:33:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Alex for his 8th place finish in the Y14 Saber event. He helped make us the only club to get two fencers in the top 8 in that event!