There has been some sort of argument between the Harrisburg and
Philadelphia division about who was hosting the event. No one could
agree on anything, so the whole MARC competition for both days was
unsanctioned.

That did not stop fencers from coming to the event from Pittsburgh,
New Jersery, and Western NY. There were 34 people registered for
the 'E' Foil event, which began two hours late because the pools had
too many people (a pool of more than 8 takes about four hours).

I was 5-1 in my pool, which had a few challenging fencers. The
closest one was against a 'C' sabre fencer who gave me a nice arm
slash two seconds into the bout. He won with a final score of 4-5.

I was ranked #1 in my pool, and #4 out of 34 fencers. My first DE
bout was against a younger fencer, who was a lot better than most
other people I fenced. I had him at 3-1 at the start of the last 3-
minute period, but the bout picked up from there and ended at 13-3.

My second DE bout was against a lefty from New Jersey. The bout was
close all the way through, but he ended up using left-handed tactics
and defeated me 10-12. I finished #9, but the sad part is that I
beat the winner of the whole competition 5-0 in my pool.

Well worth the trip though, I learned a lot from the Rochester
Fencing Center people who came down for the MARC events. Seems that
a good number of people on the Penn State Fencing Team have come out
of that club.


-Eric