On the heels of their medal sweep at the Central Coast Youth Circuit earlier this month in San Luis Obispo, four young fencers from Presidio Fencing Club attended the SoCal Youth Challenge Foil tournament in Pasadena last weekend.
In the Youth 12 event, Timothy Stanton again won the gold medal and Sophie Russo again won the silver, while Steven Henderson, who took the bronze in San Luis Obispo, finished eighth out of a field of 18. Stanton also competed in the Youth 14 event, finishing third out of 17. The fourth Presidio fencer, Graham Mills, won the silver in the Youth 10 event, a 14-member competition, with his only loss occurring in the final round.
Meanwhile, the UCSB Fencing Team (http://www.ucsbfencing.net/) had similar success last weekend. At the annual Cal Poly Turkey Tournament, UCSB foil fencers Alexei Mlodinow, Reese Beisser and Yannick Concordal swept the medals in a field of nearly 60 novice entrants. Amazingly, 16 of the 17 UCSB novice fencers, most of whom have only been fencing since October, finished in the top half of the event, with eight making it to the round of 16, and five to the round of eight.
In the Mixed Saber event, UCSB saber captains Ken Coleman and Stephanie Lind won the gold and the silver, respectively, and Charles Poon, in his saber debut, finished eighth. Poon also finished with the bronze in the Mixed Foil. He was the sole entrant from UCSB in that event.
The Turkey Tournament was attended by fencers from UCSB, Cal Poly, UC Berkeley, UC Davis and UC Santa Cruz.
Leslie Robinson represents the Presidio Fencing Club.