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First Wave of Team USA Athletes Named for 2023 Junior & Cadet Fencing World Championships

02/21/2023, 1:30pm CST
By Bryan Wendell

USA Fencing today announced the selection of nine of the 12 squads that will represent Team USA at the 2023 Junior & Cadet Fencing World Championships, which will begin April 1 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.


Five-time world champion Lauren Scruggs (Queens, N.Y./Peter Westbrook Foundation, Fencers Club Inc. and Harvard University) competes in Junior Women's Foil at the 2022 Junior & Cadet Worlds. She's back to defend her crown in 2023. (Photo by #BizziTeam)

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The journey has taken them across the country and around the world. And for their final stop this season, Team USA’s finest Juniors and Cadets will head to one of Europe’s hidden gems for their toughest test yet.

We now know nine of the 12 squads that will represent Team USA at the 2023 Junior & Cadet Fencing World Championships, which will begin April 1 in Plovdiv, the second-largest city and cultural capital of Bulgaria. 

The Junior & Cadet Fencing World Championships is the most prestigious competition hosted each year by the FIE (International Fencing Federation) for athletes at the Junior (under 20) and Cadet (under 17) levels. 

It’s a tournament that has been dominated by Team USA in recent years. Last year, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Team USA’s Juniors and Cadets won six of the 18 available gold medals. Our 15 total medals — six gold, three silver, six bronze — were nearly double the total of the next closest competitor, Italy. 

That performance will be a tough act to follow in 2023. But given the strength of this year’s squad — a mix of returning world medalists and impressive newcomers — there’s reason for optimism. 

The nine squads being announced today were finalized after fencing finished at the 2023 Junior Olympics in Denver. The remaining three squads — Junior Women’s Epee, Junior Men’s Foil and Junior Women’s Saber — will be finalized after results are in from the 2023 Junior & Cadet Zonal Championship, held March 1–6, as well as a pair of senior-level FIE tournaments.

The athletes in these squads represent eight different states: California, Georgia, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas. Five of these athletes compete collegiately in NCAA programs, including two for Ohio State and one each for Columbia, Harvard and Brandeis.

Today’s announcement includes 27 athletes across 30 available slots. Those numbers aren’t the same because three young Cadet athletes had such successful seasons that they qualified as Juniors, too.

Those three are women’s foil fencer Emily Jing (Roxbury, Mass./Star Fencing Academy) and men’s saber fencers William Morrill (New York, N.Y./Scarsdale Fencing Center and Fencers Club Inc.) and Cody Walter Ji (Atlanta, Ga./Nellya Fencers). They’ll be quite busy in Plovdiv, competing across all three days of competition for their weapon.

OK, enough delay. Here are the teams!

Epee

Junior Women's Epee

Team will be finalized after the 2023 Junior & Cadet Zonal Championship, held March 1–6.

Junior Men's Epee

  • Samuel Imrek (Missouri City, Texas/Alliance Fencing Academy)

  • Miles Weiss (Houston, Texas/Alliance Fencing Academy and The Ohio State University)

  • Henry Lawson (New York, N.Y./Fencers Club Inc.)

  • Gabriel Feinberg (Lincoln, Mass./Olympia Fencing Center and The Ohio State University)

Cadet Women's Epee

  • Leehi Machulsky (San Jose, Calif./Academy Of Fencing Masters (AFM))

  • Sarah Gu (Warren, N.J./Medeo Fencing Club)

  • Yasmine Khamis (McKinney, Texas/Alliance Fencing Academy)

Cadet Men's Epee

  • Luka Loncar (Belmont, Mass./Olympia Fencing Center)

  • Alexander Bezrodnov (Mountainside, N.J./Medeo Fencing Club)

  • Sergei Kudriavtcev (Houston, Texas/Alliance Fencing Academy)

Foil

Junior Women's Foil

  • Lauren Scruggs (Queens, N.Y./Peter Westbrook Foundation, Fencers Club Inc. and Harvard University)

  • Zander Rhodes (South Orange, N.J./V Fencing Club, Le Club Touche and Columbia University)

  • Ryanne Leslie (Philadelphia, PA./V Fencing Club and Piste Fencing Academy)

  • Emily Jing (Roxbury, Mass./Star Fencing Academy)

Junior Men's Foil

Team will be finalized after results are known from the 2023 Junior & Cadet Zonal Championship, held March 1–6, and the Cairo Senior World Cup, held Feb. 23–26. 

Cadet Women's Foil

  • Emily Jing (Roxbury, Mass./Star Fencing Academy)

  • Katerina Lung (Lexington, Mass./Moe Fencing Club LLC)

  • Jia Chen (Franklin Lakes, N.J./V Fencing Club and Le Club Touche)

Cadet Men's Foil

  • Roy Graham (Needham, Mass./Jovanovic Fencing)

  • Castor Kao (Needham, Mass./Star Fencing Academy)

  • Renzo Fukuda (San Francisco, Calif./Massialas Foundation (M Team))

Saber

Junior Women's Saber

Team will be finalized after results are known from the 2023 Junior & Cadet Zonal Championship, held March 1–6, and the Athens Senior World Cup, held March 3–5.

Junior Men's Saber

  • Colin Heathcock (Palo Alto, Calif./Manhattan Fencing Center)

  • William Morrill (New York, N.Y./Scarsdale Fencing Center and Fencers Club Inc.)

  • Cody Walter Ji (Atlanta, Ga./Nellya Fencers)

  • Lev BenAvram (Bethesda, Md./Nazlymov Fencing Foundation and Brandeis University)

Cadet Women's Saber

  • Jenna Shoman (Short Hills, N.J./Manhattan Fencing Center)

  • Sophie Liu (North Potomac, Md./Capital Fencing Academy)

  • Hannah Lee (Wellesley, Mass./Boston Fencing Club)

Cadet Men's Saber

  • William Morrill (New York, N.Y./Scarsdale Fencing Center and Fencers Club Inc.)

  • Cody Walter Ji (Atlanta, Ga./Nellya Fencers)

  • Taylor Chon (Carrollton, Texas/Globus Fencing Academy)

Tag(s): Updates  2023 Jr/Cdt Worlds