Junior Men's Foil:

I was ranked #145 as a D fencer going into the event out of 234
total fencers. I had a pool of 7, and won my first 3 bouts pretty
easily, but lost the last 3 because I stopped counter-attacking.
Why did I change up? Because I didn't think it would work for
everyone. Well it does. I ended my pool with 3 wins and 3 losses.
Counter-attack as a stop-hit tends to work now because it closes the
distance between you and your opponent too quickly for them to get a
flick or a march attack. I seeded as #115 into the direct
elimination (after the automatic elimination of the bottom 20%, of
which I was a member for the last two years in this competition). I
faced #109 as my opponent, and although he was a C fencer, my
counter-attacks landed more often than his attempts to flick to the
back. New timings are very nice.
I advanced to my next bout, and was up against the #5 seeded
opponent. Apparently a parry with a side flick to the chest still
works. The bout was retarded really... all he did was run at my
waving his blade, both defending himself and maintaining right-of-
way simultaneously. The director rarely called it attack in prep
unless it was blatantly obvious or one light for me.
I finished somewhere in the top 128 of this, but based on my
seeding, probably in the top 100. This beats out my 200th spot
finish the last two years.

Junior Men's Epee:

I was ranked #115 as a C fencer going into the event out of 213
total fencers. Again I had a pool of 7, and won my first four bouts
5-4. This was not the way I planned to win, but victories are more
important than indicator. Unfortunately my next bout was against
the #11th ranked junior fencer in the country, and this was lost 2-
4. I then lost to a lefty because I began my attack from lowline
instead of keeping my tip up and counter-attacking with opposition.
I ended my pool with 4 wins and 2 losses. This beats out last
year's results of 3-3.
I seeded #75 when the bottom 20% were eliminated. Not bad. I got a
bye out of the first DE bout, but had to face a #50 seed, a
nationally ranked B fencer, in order to get into the top 64. I
capitalized on his attack because he would attempt to feint to see
my reaction. I would retreat with half-step, causing him to bring
his arm back in a parry position (because I am ready for him).
However, this half step was preparation and I simply did a short
lunge into his advance. If he parried, he would parry prime (1) and
try to in-fight, but he did not have leverage advantage. Some in-
fighting phrases were incredible, but I managed to win them 80% of
the time. I ended up pulling an upset 15-9, putting me one bout
away from earning national points.
Unfortunately, instead of drawing an easy fencer who stumbled into
the top 64, I drew the same guy nationally ranked guy who beat me in
the pool 2-4. I lost this bout (forgot score, but it was bad).
At the end, this same guy finished 2nd. I don't feel so bad now.
Dennis Kraft from Ligonier, PA finished 3rd (you might recall him
from the White Christmas Open in 2004).

Overall I am satisfied with my results. My main concern is that I
should not have lost to the lefty. A record of 5-1 in the pools is
pretty much the minimum possible to get national points, unless you
pull some pretty serious upsets, or go 4-2 with a high indicator. I
need to practice my flesche attacks and my strategy against lefties.


~Eric