Summer Nationals 2023
Satan's Armpit, AZ
In June I traveled to Phoenix, Arizona for Summer Nationals, the largest fencing tournament in the world with over 5,000 competitors. To say the least it was pretty hot. The venue was inside and had great air conditioning but every second outside felt like I was going to melt.
I stayed with my godparents, my aunt Brianna and uncle Charlie. They came to watch, cheer, and they also took portraits of me and my teammates. They are both professional photographers. My grandpa Bob and Grandma Elena came down from Pine, Arizona and stayed for a few days so they could cheer me on. My uncle Sean also came to watch and he brought my little cousins Connor and Chloe.
I competed in Cadets, Juniors, Div 1, Div 1A, and Senior teams. I didn’t do so well in most of my individual events, 234th in Juniors (yikes), 108th in Div 1, and 88th in Div 1A. However in Cadets, I finish 11th, earning a fancy B23 rating, as well as moving up to 27th in the country for that age group. Placing this high means I’ll be seeded higher at national tournaments but it also means that I’ll be on the waiting list for the next Cadet World Cup in Godollo, Hungary. So if seven people don’t go, then I am in! This is super exciting news and as the new seasons starts up again I am gonna move even higher up on the points.
The last event I competed in was Senior Team. My team consisted of me and my good friends Alex Jeffords and Jeein Joo. We won our first direct elimination bout without much effort, however the second was a lot more tricky. We went up against Tim Morehouse, a team made up of four strong fencers, two of which were finalists in cadets. We fought hard but sadly couldn’t pull though. The final score was 41-45.
This tournament was extra cool because I got support from both my family, friends and a bunch of my club-mates. A few of my bouts had upwards of 20 people rooting for me at the edge of the strip. Overall, I learned a lot of lessons and I will continue to apply them and get better as I continue in my fencing career. This tournament also marks the first time that international competition is actually starting to look like a real possibility. I can almost taste it. Next season is gonna be fun.
Here are a bunch of medal photos from the 2022-23 season in no particular order.
