We had quite a fair showing at the NAC in Portland, Oregon. Six of our fencers made the trip: Phil Hedges, Keith Lichten, John McGrew, Matthias and Thibault Philippine, and Mehmet Tepedelenlioglu.

Out of 164 fencers in the Div I tournament, Keith placed 7^th, Mehmet 18^th, Phil 24^th, and John 163^rd. To quote Mehmet: "Oh, and by the way, congrats to Keith for making the top 8. I couldn't watch him until he fenced Pryor, and he was almost toying with him. It was impressive." Congratulations to all you guys!

Matthias and Thibault fenced first in the Y12 at the NAC. Out of 43 fencers, Matthias placed 11^th and Thibault 19^th. Then, in the Y14 category, which is a tough category, Thibault finished 7^th and Matthias finished 65^th out of 85 fencers! They also swept up  in the Division SNQ, with Thibault finishing 3^rd in the U16 and Matthias finishing 2^nd in the Y14, which means they both now qualify for Summer Nationals. In the Bay Cup Y12 this past Sunday, Thibault was first and Matthias was second (meaning, once again, like Keith and Mehmet, they met each other in the finals. Oh, the humanity). Nice fencing, guys!

In other fencing news, we hosted a Bay Cup tournament at the gym last Sunday and EBFGers were out in force and taking no prisoners. In the Senior D and Lower Mixed Epee, Patrick Wang sailed through the pools and DEs, hardly breaking a sweat to finish 3^rd out of 24 fencers, earning his E09. Elani Ferri came in at 12^th, Robert Zerby finished 15^th, and Steven Fialkowski finished 24^th. It was great having so many of our fencers in this tournament!

In the Senior C and Higher tournament, we had a true battle to the finish. Mehmet and Keith met in the semi-finals, and it was tooth and nail to the bitter end, with Mehmet victorious, 15-14. There were beautiful touches on both sides and great hilarity to be had. For instance, Interesting Mehmet Fact: He is not swearing in Turkish when he yells (much to my disappointment). He's just yelling gibberish. But, Interesting Keith Fact: He is swearing in Turkish during bouts, but only in his head.

Mehmet went on to win the whole darn thing, defeating Kyle Yamasaki 15-13 in the final bout, with much gibberish occurring, and earning his A09. Keith tied for 3^rd out of 28 fencers, Michael Albrecht came in 9^th, Michael Slater came in 12^th, Jonathan Jeffries came in 16^th, Mark Wheeler came in 17^th (after meeting Jonathan in the first round of DEs – which pairing made me laugh out loud), Cameron Parker came in 23^rd, Andrew Davis came in 25^th (I told you there were a lot of us there!), Juliette Flores came in 26^th, and John McGrew came in 28^th.

A huge thank-you to our refs: Jim Liebich (If you wears the suit, you calls the final bouts), Susan Powell, Sharon Parker, Suzanne Bloomer (a very good and hilarious ref, and God help you if you don't come right up when she calls your name), Mike Slater (yes, even after he fenced in the SCHXE, and thank you very much for that, Mike), Beau Mitchum, Juliette Flores, and I just know I'm forgetting someone, darn it, but thank you, too.