2005 Holy Grail Team Championships
And the overall winner of the 2005 Holy Grail Team
Fencing Championships is....
(drumroll please)
Carnegie Mellon University Fencing Club!
OVERALL STANDINGS
(Only a club's highest point total in a weapon counts)
PL CLUB GRAIL POINTS
1. Carnegie Mellon U. Fencing Club 22
2. Dubois FC 18
3. Three Rivers Fencing Center 17
T4. Bethel Park FC 16
T4. Corsair FC 16
6. Fencing Institute of America 14
7. Upper St. Clair FC 13
T8. West Virginia University FC 10
T8. Buffalo Fencing Center 10
10. University of Maryland FC 8
11. Mt. Lebanon FC 5
12. Penn State University FC 3
---------------------------
EPEE STANDINGS
PL TEAM GRAIL POINTS
1. University of Maryland FC 4
2. Carnegie Mellon University FC 3
T3. West Virginia University FC 2
T3. Buffalo Fencing Center 2
CMU's epee team consisted of competitive veterans Adam Sbeglia
and Polina Vinogradova, along with rookie Storm Walden. In
the pools, they first met up with a team from the University
of Maryland. Adam posted a strong first bout to give CMU
a 5-0 lead, but UMD's experienced closers stormed back and
held us off to win 15-11. They next met up with Buffalo
Fencing Center's epeeists in a tight match. Storm won his
first bout to put us up 5-4, and Polina held off a strong
fencer 4-6 to keep us within a touch heading into the final
bout. Adam evened things at 14-14, but BFC pulled out the
decisive final touch to edge us 15-14 (Never fear, intrepid
reader - the loss was avenged! Keep reading). In their third
pool match, CMU's team came out with a vengeance, winning
all three bouts to down West Virginia University 15-11. Their
1-2 record out of pools drew them the third seed (out of
only 4 teams) heading into DEs, and a first-round draw against
Buffalo FC.
Storm Walden served notice of imminent revenge by downing
BFC's captain 5-4 in the opening bout. Polina was outfenced
by BFC's anchor epeeist in the second bout, dropping it 3-6.
Adam cruised through his bout 7-4 to put CMU up by a touch
after the first set of matchups. Polina came out strong in
her second bout of the match, downing the luckless opposing
captain 5-3. Storm followed with an impressive 5-2 shellacking
of BFC's third fencer. Adam kept things even against their
captain, fencing a 5-5 bout to keep CMU's lead at 6 touches
heading into the last set of bouts. In this last set, Polina
and Adam each squeaked out 5-4 victories to give big rookie
Storm an 8-touch cushion heading into the final bout against
BFC's captain. Storm needed no cushion. With his opponent
down big and pressing for quick touches, Storm counterattacked
his way to a 5-4 victory, sealing a 45-36 win, and sending
us into the finals.
The draw in the finals was University of Maryland's squad,
who had downed us 15-11 in pools. Led by three-time Holy Grail
trophy winner (at Penn State) Greg Rotondi, UMD's team presented
a formidable challenge. Greg put UMD up 5-3 over Adam after the
first bout, but Polina had a hot hand in the second bout,
trouncing UMD's third fencer 7-2 to put us up by 3 touches.
Storm held off his next opponent 5-5, and then Adam built our
lead a little more against UMD's third, winning 5-2 to put us
up 20-14 after the fourth bout. Greg, though, then did what
captains are supposed to do, coming back against Storm by a
score of 11-3 to put UMD up 25-23. Unfortunately, they stayed
ahead for the rest of the match. Storm made up some ground
in his third bout, but we dropped the rest of our bouts to
eventually fall 45-35, good for second place.
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SABER STANDINGS
PL TEAM GRAIL POINTS
1. Corsair FC 5
2. University of Maryland FC 4
T3. Carnegie Mellon University FC 3
T3. Penn State University FC 3
5. West Virginia University FC 1
CMU's saber team was one of our saber guys, Omar Guerrero,
Charles Yee, whom we pulled over from foil for the day,
and CMUFC alum Andrew Tsai. Their opening draw in pools
was a tough team from local saber club Corsair FC.
Charles dropped the opening bout to a more experienced
sabreur, but Andrew came storming back to win his bout
9-3 and give us a lead. Omar held off Corsair's
captain 5-5 to post a promising 15-13 victory. Next, we
met up with Penn State's saber squad, and downed them
easily, winning 15-7. West Virginia University and
University of Maryland also proved no match for our
squad, each falling 10-15. This gave us the first
seed (out of 5 teams) heading into the DEs.
Our draw in the first DE bout was University of
Maryland. Omar posted a 5-2 victory to open the match,
and Charles did an incredible job to beat UMD's
closer 5-4, which put us up 10-6 after two. Everything
fell apart for Andrew in the third bout, as his
opponent blew past him 9-3 to put UMD up by 2 touches.
Charles dropped his next bout 2-5, and Omar made up
a touch of the deficit in his next bout, winning 6-5
to bring us to within 21-25. The next two bouts gave
UMD an insurmountable lead. Andrew and Charles each
dropped 0-5 bouts to put us in a 21-35 hole with only
two bouts left. Andrew pulled us closer in the eighth
bout, winning 9-5, but the resulting 10 touch deficit
was too much for Omar against UMD's anchor fencer.
Omar won the bout 9-5, but it was only good enough to
bring us to within 39-45. The disappointing loss
after earning the top seed out of pools gave CMU's
sabreurs a third-place finish in their weapon.
--------------------------
FOIL STANDINGS
PL TEAM GRAIL POINTS
1. Dubois FC 1 18
2. Three Rivers Fencing Center 17
T3. CMU FC "Panda Strike Force" 16
T3. Bethel Park FC Blackhawks 16
5. FIA "Underrepresented" 14
6. Upper St. Clair FC BourbonScotchBeer 13
7. Dubois FC 2 (12)
8. Corsair Ladies 11
9. CMU FC "Sea Monkeys" (10)
10. Bethel Park FC Lady Hawkes (9)
11. Buffalo Fencing Center 8
12. West Virginia University 7
13. Bethel Park F.C. Hawk-Is (6)
14. Mt. Lebanon FC Blue Devils 5
15. Upper St. Clair FC "Lechter" (4)
16. Bethel Park FC Kiddie Hawks (3)
17. Upper St. Clair FC "Glavin" (2)
18. Bethel Park FC J-Hawks (1)
The tournament was utterly mobbed by foil teams this
year, as 18 squads from ten different clubs registered.
This was a huge organizational challenge to run the
tournament as promised, but we were up to the task (see
below).
CMU fielded two foil teams this year:
The self-named "Sea Monkeys" team was Oliver Chen,
Erik Martin, Aaron Morris, and Jason Geist. Their first
draw in pools was a junior team from Bethel Park's
glut of high school league fencers, who proved no match
for our bigger and faster fencers. We won it 15-3.
The second pool bout (this time against adults) was
tougher. Aaron and Erik dropped 0-5 bouts against
experienced fencers, putting Jason in a 0-10
hole in the last bout. Jason fenced conservatively,
winning his bout 1-0 to run out the clock and keep
the score as even as he could. The final tally was
1-10 against us. The third pool bout was against
another high school squad from Bethel Park (this time,
mercifully, not their JV squad at least). Erik and
Oliver cruised through their bouts 5-0 and 5-2, and
Jason closed it out by running out the clock against
an increasingly desperate opponent to win the match
11-5. Our fourth pool bout was against local club
FIA's squad. Jason and Oliver dropped the first
two bouts 4-5 and 2-5, putting Aaron in a 6-10 hole
in the anchor spot. Aaron almost pulled out the
victory for us, tying the score at 14-all, but
FIA won the decisive touch to drop our squad to a 2-2
record out of pools.
Our draw in DEs was a squad from Corsair FC, who
named themselves "Corsair Ladies" despite the fact
that half of them were quite obviously men. Aaron,
Jason, and Erik each dropped a bout in the first
set, putting us in a 6-15 hole. Jason and Aaron
narrowed the match in the next two bouts, winning
6-3 and 8-6 while running out the clock in both bouts
to bring us to within 20-24. Oliver dropped the
next bout 1-5, and Jason (evidently very enamored of
defensive fencing) squeaked out a 3-2 win. In a 24-32
hole with two bouts left, Oliver and Aaron had to be
aggressive. Oliver couldn't make up ground in his
bout, falling 7-8, and Aaron ran out of time trying
to pull us even in the last bout. He won it 4-2, but
the final score was in favor of Corsair: 42-35. Their
efforts brought this squad a respectable 9th-place
finish in a large field.
The also self-named "Panda Strike Force" team was Matt
Faria, Ben Nowak, Greg Peng, and Dave Lettieri. This
squad cruised through pools. Their first draw was a
squad from Dubois FC. Dave put us up 5-4 after the
first bout, and Matt followed with a 5-0 trouncing of
his opponent to build a sizeable lead. Ben closed out
the match 5-3 to start us off with a 15-7 win. The next
draw was a squad from West Virginia University. WVU's
squad stumbled badly against us and never seemed to get
going, eventually falling 1-15 to our unusually named
foil squad. The final draw was a high school JV squad
from Bethel Park, who were shut out 0-15. Their 3-0
record earned the Panda Strike Force the second seed
coming out of pools.
Their first DE draw was high school squad from
Upper St. Clair. Ben and Matt opened with 5-4 and
5-2 wins, and Dave beat USCFC's next fencer 5-1 to
put CMU up 15-7. USCFC never recovered from this
hole against our older, faster, and more experienced
fencers. Ben won his two remaining bouts 5-1 and
5-0; Dave won his 5-1 and 5-2; Matt won his 5-3 and
5-0 to cruise to a lopsided 45-14 win and put us into
the round of 8 teams.
Our draw in the second DE was the same Dubois FC
squad who lost to us in our first match of the day.
Ben and Matt started off strong, winning 5-0 and 5-1,
but Dubois came back against Dave, posting a 10-5
win to close the gap to 11-15. Greg then squeaked
out a 5-4 win before Dave floundered in his second
bout, losing 1-10. Dubois now led our surprised
fencers 25-21. Fortunately, they pulled themselves
together and began grinding out wins from this point
on. Matt posted a 9-4 victory to put us back on
top, Dave found his game and managed to hold off
his last opponent 5-5, and Greg staved off his
opponent 5-5 to keep us up by a single touch heading
into the ninth and final bout. Matt was left in
the anchor position, charged with preserving our squad's
lead against the same Dubois fencer who had won his
last bout 10-1. The bout was close, but at 44-43 up,
Matt pulled out the winner to send Dubois off to the
locker room and put CMU's squad into the semifinals.
The semifinal draw was a strong squad from local
Three Rivers Fencing Center, all coached by our
beloved head coach Iana Dakova. They were young (high
school age), but all had national youth tournament
experience. Ben opened for us by grinding out a
5-4 victory over TRFC's anchor fencer. Matt followed
with a 5-2 win over TRFC's third fencer, bringing
a 10-6 lead and a panicked substitution by TRFC.
Dave dropped the next bout 5-8, but CMU still clung
to a one-touch lead. Ben built on the lead by
beating TRFC's sub 5-1, but TRFC's anchor was too
strong for Dave to handle in the next bout. The
bout score was 2-10, giving TRFC a 25-22 lead after
five bouts. Matt and Dave followed with 1-5 and 3-4
losses, as TRFC slowly built their lead and began
to run out the clock. Ben's last bout was a 2-4 loss,
leaving Matt in a 28-38 hole heading into the final
bout. I'd like to say that Matt's adrenaline-fueled
comeback here put us in the finals, but unfortunately
it wasn't quite that amazing. Matt stormed down the
strip like a demonic hedgehog, skewering TRFC's anchor
fencer from unexpected angles while squirming and
bouncing out of the way of his opponent's attacks.
He closed the score to within 41-43 as his teammates
all sat by the strip and cheered him on, but TRFC's
anchor finally found a way to hit his elusive,
remising opponent, scoring the next two touches to
put TRFC in the finals, 45-41 over us.
With strong performances in all three weapons,
CMUFC finished first in the overall tournament standings,
earning us the right to keep the Holy Grail trophy at
home for the next year. Our last overall win in our
own yearly tournament was in 2000. Congratulations to
all our fencers for representing us capably and sportingly.
Thank you to all of you who helped with the tournament.
We set up 10 strips this year to handle the large volume,
which proved an enormous organizational challenge for a
small club like us. Fortunately, many of you pitched in
by helping tape down strips, set up and tear down equipment,
and clean up. Special thank-yous must go to Oliver, for
an incredible amount of preparation work in the months
before the tournament to make sure we had gym reservations,
prizes, and other miscellaneous necessities, to Tanna,
who was bedridden with a painful neck injury the night
before the tournament, but gutted it out to lend us her
much-needed organizational experience, and to Mike Sedor,
who was pressed into unaccustomed service as a referee all
day long. We also have to thank all the people external
to our club who helped out by refereeing, lending strips,
or setting up and cleaning up. Jim Roberts, who runs
CMU's fencing class, helped referee all day, and we had
numerous external refs help us out. There is an enormous
amount of work to run a tournament of this size (for
comparison, the National Championship team tournaments
are sometimes smaller than our 18-team foil tourney).
To run it as smoothly as we managed this year takes a lot
of people pitching in.
Happy fencing, and I'll see you all at practice to
decide how to celebrate our team victory! Go Tartans!
Dan
Click here for 2004 Holy Grail
Results.
Last modified: Sun Apr 3 18:29:17 EDT 2005