MUS Fencing

Fencing Team Photo Friday!

Don't forget! Team photo will be taken after chapel on Friday!!!

Fencing Photo Schedule

Tuesday, April 10th - 4:30 in Todd Snowden - Action photos will be shot, wear full competition gear.

Friday, April 20th* - Team photo will be taken after chapel
* date changed from April 13th to the 20th due to Latin Convention

MUS WINS 2012 STATE FENCING CHAMPIONSHIP!!

MUS Fencing Teams won team championships in Epee, Saber and with second place in Foil team, the overall State Fencing Championship!

Although MUS took only one individual medal, our team depth and really courageous performances by every person on each weapon team put us over the top.

In this year's tournament, we continued to close the gap in foil, took the epee trophy back to MUS, and held the saber championship for another year.

Drew Hutson placed second in individual saber, followed by Jeffrey Zheng in 7th, Utkarsh Mishra and Andrew Elsakr in 9th and 10th, and Bennett Mercer and Travis Floyd just out of the team point placement. MUS finished in the top spot over four competing teams by virtue of the strong finishes from Andrew and Utkarsh.

The Epee team competition was the toughest and most hotly contested. MUS team bested 11 other schools, including Memphis teams from CBHS, St. George's, and Germantown High School. Ben Taylor just missed the medal round, with Jared Ashkenaz, Aaron Clifft, William Lamb, and Nick Dimento all adding to the team score.

In Foil, our Team Captain, Mark Sorensen was fifth, Jeffery Zheng close behind, with Doug McClew, Kevin Tu, and Sam Ostrow also contributing points in a close second place finish to Baylor's powerful team. With five teams competing, MUS finished second to Baylor, ahead of St. George's, CBHS, and Mccallie.

The State High School Fencing Championships were held in Franklin, TN, on March 31st with 12 High School and Homeschool teams and  71 individual competitors. The 7th annual championship was attended by more teams and more individuals than ever. This event has grown from the initial competition between only three schools and 18 fencers in just epee and foil in 2006 to the current participation levels in this year's tournament.

Many thanks to Michael Vines, Baylor and Chris Cheney, Franklin for organizing and hosting the event!

Huge congratulations on a successful season to the team captains, Mark Sorensen, Ben Taylor, and Drew Hutson and the contributing members in each of the weapon teams.

Special thanks to Mark, our only graduating senior, for riding herd on the foil team all year and with best wishes as he drags his fencing gear across the world in the future.

 Coach Brad

MUS Open Fencing Results 3/24/12

From Coach Brad Kroeker:
Again, MUS took the majority of the hardware from the open tournament last weekend. 

MUS team and club members scored a blow-away victory with 9 medals (2 gold, 2 silver, 5 bronze) to next best Collierville (2 silver, 1 bronze), CBHS (2 gold), and St. George's (2 bronze). 

MUS swept the Y-14 foil with John Wells (MUS club member, gold), Mackey Alexander (silver), Will Tomes (bronze), and Dylan Riggs (bronze), all bringing in fine performances. 

Drew Hutson blew through the saber competition to take the gold, followed by Jeffrey Zheng (silver), and Skip Aymett (MUS '08) Bronze.

Open Foil had Jeffrey Zheng finishing with a bronze medal, and open epee' with Grayson Harber (MUS Club) in third with a bronze. 

Finishing just out of the medals were Doug McClew at 5th in open foil and Abigail Aldea (MUS Club), 5th in open epee'. 

Next week we wrap up the season in Franklin, TN with the State High School Championships.
(Top five fencers in each weapon team.)
Foil - Mark Sorensen, Jeffrey Zheng, Doug McClew, Kevin Tu, and Sam Ostrow Epee - Ben Taylor, Aaron Clifft, Nick DiMento, Jared Ashkenaz, and William Lamb Saber - Drew Hutson, Bennett Mercer, Andrew Elsakr, Utkarsh Mishra, and Travis Floyd 

Congratulations to all and best of luck next weekend!

Tournament Results - St. George's

Results from the St. George's Tournament - 3/3/12 

Even though we were missing Mark, Doug, Ben, Jared, and Abigail (MUS Club); MUS team still came through on top at Saint George's tournament this weekend. 

MUS took gold, silver and bronze to best Memphis Fencers' three bronze and St. George's gold and silver. 

Grayson Harber (MUS Club) cruised to a win in the épée final against Jake Doan and Aaron Clifft took third and is a new E-ranked fencer. HUGE effort and well-deserved! Congratulations Aaron!

Jeffrey Zheng  fought his way into the foil final to fall just short of a win and finish with silver! Good job Jeffrey! Very good work also to Kevin Tu (5th foil) and Nick DiMento (6th épée)!

Coach Brad

MUS Open Results

MUS won 3 of 4 fencing events and 9 of 16 medal bouts on Saturday.  Competing fencers from Ole Miss, St. George's School, CBHS, and Memphis Fencing Club joined the MUS team.

Drew Hutson won open saber.
Utkarsh Mishra and Andrew Elsakr tied for 3rd.
Travis Floyd was 5th and Bennett Mercer was 8th.

Club member Grayson Harber won épée, Ben Taylor placed third, Jared Ashkenaz and Aaron Clifft were 6th and 7th.

 Our best foil finish was Jeffrey Zheng in 10th place and Sam Ostrow in 13th.

 MUS team swept the Y-14 Foil with Kevin Tu in the Gold, club member Wesley Wells in 2nd, and William Bragg and Mackey Alexander tied for 3rd.

 Congratulations to all!
 Coach Brad

Practice Cancelled Monday, February 27th

No practice Monday, February 27th. Enjoy the day off and see you Tuesday.

Fencing Junior Olympic National Championship Results

From Coach Brad Kroeker:
Just back from the Salt Lake City Junior Olympic National Championships! 
This year we had MUS Team Members qualify in each weapon (a first):

MUS Fencing Team-

Doug McClew – Foil
Drew Hutson – Saber
Ben Taylor – Epee’
Utkarsh Mishra (Qualified, but did not compete.)

MUS Fencing Club-

Abigail Aldea (St. Mary’s School) – Epee’
Grayson Harber (Germantown) – Epee’ 

Highlights from the tournament:
Ben Taylor finished 3-3 in the first round, equaling our best first round ever in JO’s. Ben got his third win over Arthur Nemeth, a nationally top-ranked fencer in his final bout. Nemeth, at that point was 5-0 and had just beaten the eventual silver medalist Nick Hanahan.  Ben eventually finished in 139^th place as top-ranked in Cadet Men’s Epee’ in Tennessee.
Drew Hutson was the overall top-ranked Men’s Saber in Tennessee at 136^th.
Doug McClew was the overall top-ranked Men’s Foil  in Tennessee at 162^nd. 

Club member Abigail Aldea advanced to the second round of Direct Elimination, finishing as the overall (all weapons, Men’s and Women’s) best in Tennessee at 48^th place in Cadet Women’s Epee’.

Fencing Team Travels To Salt Lake City for Junior Olympics

Four MUS team members and two of our club members will be travelling to Salt Lake City on Friday, February 17th, for the Junior Olympic Championships.

For the first time, all three weapons will be represented. 
Saber – Drew Hutson and Utkarsh Mishra
Epee’ – Ben Taylor
Foil – Doug McClew
Club members – Grayson Harber (Germantown H.S.) and Abigail Aldea (Saint Mary‘s School))

Go Owls! 

Brad Kroeker, coach

MUS Open Tournament Results

A big step forward for the team!!!!

The MUS open on Saturday  represented a big step up in participation (10 different schools/clubs participating), events (added a Y-14 Foil event), and results (8 wins of 16 medals awarded)!

 Medal count:

MUS      2 gold    2 silver  4 bronze              8 total
MFCAA  1 gold    1 silver  1 bronze              3 total  
Cheney              1 silver  1 bronze              2 total
Vandy                             1 bronze              1 total
Bosco (AL)                      1 bronze              1 total

 Our individual winners were:
Drew Hutson – Gold, Open Saber
Kevin Tu – Gold, Y-14 Foil
Jeffrey Zheng – Silver, Open FoiL
John Wells (MUS Club member) – Silver, Y-14 Foil
Ben Taylor – Bronze, Open Epee
Skip Aymett (MUS 2008) – Bronze, Open Epee
Rob Crump – Bronze, Y-14 Foil
Mackey Alexander – Bronze, Y-14 Foil 

Full results are at:
http://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=16145&FREDSID=p64pasi20g5075bhe4in6091d4

 Special Congrats to:

-Epee Captain, Ben Taylor achieving his E Rating

-Foil Captain, Mark Sorensen for his HUGE contribution in leadership of the Foil Team (5 of the 8 medals!!!!)

-Saber Captain, Drew Hutson for renewing his E and a huge win over Cheney and Vandy fencers!