Charlottesville Fencing Alliance

CFA will be starting another round of our very popular beginners classes in February. The youth and family class will run on Mondays from 5-6pm starting on the 13th. Our teens and adults beginners class runs on Thursdays from 6-7pm and will begin on the 16th. The classes run for 8 weeks and will teach the foundation skills as well as the history and traditions of our sport. For more information please take a look at our in depth beginners class section on this webpage under Programs. To sign up or if you have any questions at all please contact the staff through info@fencingalliance.org

This 2012 annual Hangover Classic was held in Richmond this weekend, for the second year in the very nice University of Richmond venue. This has always been a big event, usually second only to the Kickoff for size and scope for strength of fencing. This year was particularly strong, and was an ROC level event with fencers from all over the Mid Atlantic and Southeast Sections.

CFA’s ladies proved once again that they are the more dangerous of the species in this event, racking up the medal count in a strong field. Be sure to congratulate all of our medalists and fencers who went out to represent us in this event. You make us proud!

Emily Lien: Silver SWE
Anya Michaelsen: Bronze SWF
Phoebe Caplin: Bronze SWF

After having had various winter events force the cancellation of this tourney last year, we were a little nervous as the date for this years event came up. However I am happy to report that the NBC Open went off without a hitch. Well, any more of a hitch than any other tourney that is! We had several of our fencers make this their first event and we are proud of them for taking their first steps into the world of USFA events. CFA also had several medal finishes in the tourney:

Dave Sanford, Bronze D1XE
Doug Daniels, Bronze D1XS
Arti Bowman, Silver Y12XF

Thanks and congrats to everyone who came out to fence and support our annual event. You make CFA proud!

Congratulations to Dorothy Carney for her Bronze Medal Finish at the Kansas City NAC. Dorothy took 8th place in the Veterans Combined Women’s Foil event. Dorothy is making a regular habit of medaling at Vet NACs and that is a truly spiffy thing so be sure to offer your congrats and encouragement.

Fencing your way into the medal round in a Regional Open Circuit is a difficult thing for most any fencer, but doing it in back to back ROC’s is something worth noting for sure! Emily Lien battled through a very tough field at the VA Kickoff Open at the start of this season to finish in the medal round and take a Bronze. At the Charm City ROC in Baltimore she is officially making it a habit, having her second medal round finish in as many ROC competitions! Thanks to Emily for being an awesome representative of CFA and congrats on a second very spiffy finish!

Our fencers once again made us proud at the annual Richmond Thanksgiving Throwdown. While we did not have as many fencers participating as we have had in the past, our fencers that did make it out had a very good showing and represented CFA very well.

Douglas Daniels, Gold (Div2XS)
Nathaniel Sides, Silver (UXF)
Arti Bowman, Bronze (Y12XF)
Chiron Anderson, Bronze (UXF)

Congratulations to all of our fencers who participated in the event!

This past weekend Dorothy and Kari competed in the annual Dark Horse Fencing tournament in Fredericksburg, VA. Thanks for continuing to support Veteran fencing in Virgina!

This weekend kicked off the first NAC of the season right in our own back yard with a Div 2/3 and Cadet event in Richmond. We had a strong showing from our fencers at this event with some very solid results. Not a bad way to start off the season! CFA fencers in the top 32 this weekend were:
Phoebe Caplin (earning her D11) D2WF
Anya Michaelsen (D2WF)
Ken Fales (D2ME)
Congrats to all our fencers who participated, especially to those attending their first national event!

For the second year in a row, Douglas Daniels won the gold medal in saber at the Tech Open this past weekend (October 15th) at Virginia Tech. Alex Ince was our second CFA gold medal of the weekend, winning the Open Epee on Sunday. Also medaling were Joseph Shea-Hackett (5th, epee) Anya Michaelsen (5th, foil) and Dorothy Carney (7th, foil), with Sarah Simmons (foil) showing strongly in pools with two wins, one over an E rated fencer.

Well good news and bad as of the USFA board meeting tonight. In the “good” category the US will be in line with the rest of the world as far as target areas when the new season starts 8/1/12. Starting next season the lame bibs will be required for all USFA competition. Of course the bad news is that foil fencers will need to purchase a new mask or a conversion kit for their current mask. Two weapon fencers will also now need a separate foil and epee mask.

Once we are closer to the start of the new season, CFA will get more information out on the best conversion kits for the money and we will likely have a “conversion clinic” to help you convert your “epee only” mask over to a foil mask. If you decided to go ahead and switch now to get use to the new target area, remember that you will need a mask cord as well, similar (but not exactly the same) as saber fencers now use.

If you have any questions on mask or cord purchasing, please talk with James or one of the other CFA staff folks and they will be glad to walk you through it.