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Hawaii State Sabre Championships - 2010
HFC had two sabre fencers in what was a strong field of 11 fencers at the Open Sabre State Championships held on May 15th at the Ala Wai Golf Course.
This was Conny's first mixed sabre event and as luck would have it she drew a very tough pool with Yervand, Henry Chang, Thomas Miller and John-Rolf. Determined not to get shut out she scored at least one touch on each of her opponents and also gave T-Mac a run in the DE.
Timothy "Lucky" Scanson did well in the pools earning the number 3 seed behind Yervand and Jeff Dalli. In his first DE he went toe to toe with long time rival and friend Henry Chang. It was a tough bout but he prevailed 15-14 making it into the final four. Next up was Yervand who made short of work of "Lucky" 15-5.
Final results were 1. Jeff Dalli, 2. Yervand, tied for 3rd John-Rolf and Timothy "Lucky" Scanson.
Epee State Championships – 15 May 2010:
What has been a building year for HFC's fencing program continued its slow slog upward during the State Championships this weekend.
“The Flying Rolando” breezed to take the juniors in epee, knocking out La Salle's Jared Schreiber in the championship round. He ages out of the Juniors next week, so it was a glorious end to the first part of what we hope will be a long and glorious fencing career!
The Open Championships, however, were a mixed bag. “The Flying Rolando” got a good seed, sent OFC's Tom Miller home 15-14 in the closing seconds of the bought and earned his way into the quarter finals where he faced Jared again. This time, however, Jared had Roland's number and quad .50 caliber AAA, bringing down Roland's infamous flying wrist picks.
Meanwhile, in an apparent attempt to mimic the tragic hero of a an unwritten Wagnerian opera, Eric “Wotan” Mueller ended his season with high hopes, high drama, and operatically suitable tragic results. Coming out of the pools with a mid-level seed (and peppered with, “Boy, you were there but your tip wouldn't bite” style comments), Eric faced knight errant Ethan Okura for a right to be in the “Group of Eight” and a shot at a rating. In a pitched and seesaw battle that brought out the best of both fencers and a lead that switched three times, it was, by both fencers' accounts, their best match of the season. Unfortunately, Eric stayed true to operatic form and lost to a desperation shot in the closing seconds of overtime.
While Eric will lay down his blades until the 2010-2011 season, Roland will see if he can close out this one with high marks in June's Aloha State Games. Until then, check out the tournament results at the Hawai'i Division website here: http://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=11228
May 1: Hawaii State Championships/Take One
The beginning of May marked the foil competition for the State Championship 2010 (Junior & Open) and HFC had two fencers participating in the decently sized field of contestants: Roland Ng and Conny Jolitz. While Roland "Charge!" Ng polished off his pool with only one narrow 4:5 loss against Jared Schreiber, Conny "Wait, did we start already?" Jolitz had more mixed results in her group. She came back with a vengeance to knock off brother Schreiber, the Younger, 15:1, only to be stomped by brother Schreiber, the Elder, in a lively bout losing 8:15.
Meanwhile, Roland continued his winning streak against Darin Padula and continued to the Semi-Final against Ethan Okura, trying to find the right timing against a very aggressive opponent. It was a very closely fought bout over the first and the beginning of the second period, but in the end Ethan managed to pull ahead in points to win the bout 15:8 and later the final against JR Oakley, which left Roland in well-deserved 3rd place in a tough field.
Next up will be the Epee and Saber Championships on the 15th - and this time: no more Mr. Nice Guy/Girl! CJ
Dallas NAC
On March 25th, 2010 I flew to Dallas to compete in my first North American Cup. After a very long flight I finally got to my hotel around 2pm Friday afternoon which is about 5 or 6 blocks from the convention center. After a short nap I took my gear and walked over to the venue to get everything checked and stamped. Mike and Saul at the Fencing Post allowed me to keep my bag at the Fencing Post Vendor booth which was a big help as I did not have to lug it back and forth from the Hotel.
On Sat Morning at 7am I checked in for the Vet 50 Epee. I was in a pool of 7. 5 of the 7 were over 6 feet tall, thankfully there was one guy shorter then me. Two of my bouts went into overtime and I lost them both which was tough. I did beat the short guy 5-0 so at least I got one win. I came out of the pools seeded 38 and had the number 21 seed in my first DE. At the break I was down 7-9 but mananged to stage a comeback winning the bout 10-9. My first national DE win yayyyy. After that I had the number 6 seed and while I managed to hang with him in the first period he put me away rather quickly in the 2nd period. I finished in 32nd place and was warmed up for the next day.
Sunday the event was combined Vet Sabre and since my check-in wasn't until 2:30 I was able to sleep in and also take advantage of the free breakfast that the Hotel served. I walked over to the venue about noon to hang out and watch fencing. I ended up spending quite a bit of time watching the wheelchair events which was very interesting. Since my event was late in the afternoon all of the strips were still full from the morning events so there no strips to practice on. However the guys at the fencing post allowed me to warm-up in the big space behind their booth. Once again I was in a pool of 7. I fenced great in pools finishing with a 4-2 record which made me the number 8 seed. I was the only E in the top 10. So for a few minutes I was number 8 but then lost my DE 9-10 and ended up in 17th place for the day.
Monday was my final event Vet 50 Sabre. Check-in was 7am, this time there were some empty strips so I was able to warm up with Atilio Tass who is the current Vet 50 points leader and finished 3rd at the world cup.
This time it was a pool of 6 and while I did have a couple of close bouts, I only won two bouts and came out seeded 17th. After getting knocked out in first round I ended up in 17th place which added to my national points total and I'm now ranked number 22 in the nation for Vet 50 Sabre.
Timothy "Lucky" Scanson