May 18, 2005

A trip to Houston and the Southwest Sectional Championships

This past weekend two sabre fencers from Cutting Edge Fencing Club Competitive Program at North Richland Hills Recreation Center traveled to the Southwest Sectional Championships held at the Houston Athletic Fencing Center in Houston Texas, to represent CEFC and as part of the cadre of athletes competing from the North Texas Division. The Southwest Sectional Championships is the qualifying event for Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Mississippi to the Summer National Championships in Sacramento, California in Under-19 (Junior) and Division I-A (Open) categories. USA Summer Nationals is the largest fencing tournament in the word, with over 5000 athletes contesting over 80 individual and team events in the foil, epee and sabre fencing disciplines.

Both Melissa Tees and and Kate Seiler competed in the Division I-A Women's Sabre event and Melissa Tees competed in the Under-19 Women's Sabre event.

In the Under-19 Women's Sabre event Melissa fenced well in the preliminary round, and won her first
elimination bout against Brittany Barina, also of the North Texas Division, before ultimately being defeated byValarie Walker of South Texas in the gold medal bout, capturing one of two qualifcation slots for Under-19 Nationals from the Southwest Section.

In the Division I-A Women's Sabre event, Kate fenced extremely well for a competitor who has only been fencing sabre for 5 months, defeating two of her opponents in the preliminary round, both experienced sabre competitors and loosing several very close matches. Unfortunately, her results from the pool round put her up against a highly experienced and competitive athlete from Gulf Coast, Erica Wilder. Despite being severely outmatched, Kate stuck in to the end, and displayed a focus and resolve that bodes well for her success in the future.

Melissa fenced extremely well in the preliminary round, well enough to ensure a seeding of 4th going
into the Direct Elimination Tableau. She easily dispatched her first opponent, Tammy Greis of South
Texas, before being defeated by the highly experienced competitor and eventual gold medalist, Demaris Dotson, also of South Texas, in the semi-final round. In the bronze medal match, Melissa came up against the reigning North Texas Division Division II Women's Sabre Champion, Rhonda Treitsch. The bout was an extremely hard fought one, with both competitors employing a diverse array of tactical manuvers to gain an advantage. Melissa fought her way back from an early deficit, and tied the score before going on to dominate the latter stage of the bout, and winning the bronze medal in an exuberant display of superior skill and tactical success. Despite a recent history of competitive success in youth events, this was Melissa's first Open event, as fencers age up into the Under-19 and Division I-A classifications for the qualifiers to Nationals at the end of each season, and her winning combination of technical and tactical skill, training dedication and resiliant attitude promise future successes. Both Melissa and Kate qualified for the Division I-A Women's Sabre Summer National Fencing Championships. In addition, Kate qualified for Division II and Division III events at Summer Nationals based upon her results at the North Texas Division Qualifers in April.

Full results of the Southwest Sectional Championships and Summer National Qualifiers can be found on http://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=622.