Cameron Westbury of the Presidio Fencing Club is a national champion after winning the Division II Men’s Foil event at the Fencing National Championships last week in Grapevine, Texas.
Westbury earned a berth to the event by winning the Southern California National Qualifiers in March. In Texas, he competed in a field of more than 150 qualifiers from around the country. He won the championship bout 15-10.
Westbury is a 2009 graduate of Laguna Blanca School and will attend Occidental College in Los Angeles in the fall.
Also competing in the Division II Men’s Foil event was Presidio’s Keric Moore, a senior at San Marcos High School. Moore went undefeated in the preliminary rounds and placed ninth overall, his best finish at a national event.
In the women’s events, Presidio’s Sophia Russo competed in the Youth 12 Foil. After surviving a tough preliminary round, she was knocked out in the second tier of eliminations, finishing 48th out of 90. Russo attends Crane School.
The Presidio Women’s Epee Team of Sophia Rubenstein, Christiana Lyman and Lydia Kaestner (captain) lost their first match to the Fencers Club of Austin, Texas, 39-45. The three went on to compete in the individual Women’s Epee event, in which Lyman finished 31st, Kaestner 38th and Rubenstein 58th out of more than 120 entrants.
Lyman knocked out Kaestner after the two teammates met in the round of 64, and Rubenstein suffered a very narrow defeat (14-15) after her opponent received a technical foul for nearly taking out one of Rubenstein’s knees.
Lyman is a student with the Santa Barbara Homesteaders, and Kaestner is a senior at Dos Pueblos High School. Rubenstein is a 2009 graduate of San Marcos and will head to Sarah Lawrence College next month.
— Leslie Robinson represents the Presidio Fencing Club.