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March 2023 NAC Day 3 Recap: The ‘Power of Friendship’ Propels Trio to Cadet Women’s Foil Team Title

03/05/2023, 10:45pm CST
By Bryan Wendell

A gold for the trio of Jaelyn Liu, Adeline Senic and Kaitlyn Tan was among the highlights on Sunday at the 2023 Parafencing National Championships and March North American Cup, held in Fort Worth, Texas.


Jaelyn Liu (Star Fencing Academy, Fencing Institute of Texas), Adeline Senic (Renaissance Fencing Club) and Kaitlyn Tan (Star Fencing Academy) won Cadet Women's Foil — Team gold at the March NAC. (Photo by Serge Timacheff)

FORT WORTH, TEXAS — This particular path to gold started with a meeting of the moms.

The mothers of Jaelyn Liu (Star Fencing Academy, Fencing Institute of Texas), Adeline Senic (Renaissance Fencing Club) and Kaitlyn Tan (Star Fencing Academy) had the idea for the three girls to form a Cadet Women’s Foil Team at the March NAC.

“First, it was my mom, Ann,” Senic says, referring to three-time Olympian Ann Marsh-Senic OLY. “She kind of texted everybody’s mom.”

“And, the thing is,” adds Liu, “we’re all friends.”

“The power of friendship,” Adeline Senic says.

The power of friendship paired nicely with the talent of these Cadets. Two days earlier, Liu, Senic and Tan each had a top 8 finish in the Cadet Women’s Foil individual event.

But a team that looks good on paper doesn’t get gold medals handed to them. They must be earned. And three decisive victories later (45-8, 45-26, 45-23), the team known as “JAK” — an acronym formed by their first names — received their medals and accompanying cowboy hats.

Those impressive final scores may indicate that the matches weren’t particularly close. On the contrary, JAK was trailing in the gold medal bout before the Cadets turned things around.

“We were losing in the beginning for the first two bouts,” Tan says, “but then we slowly caught back up just by letting go and not stressing too much.”

“Let’s say I lose a bout,” Liu adds. “I just forget about that bout, and I just look ahead, and I see who my next opponent is and try to calm myself down.”

“You can’t change the past,” Adeline Senic says. “You just keep moving on.”

Noah Hanssen (Salle Palasz / Tri-Weapon Fencing Club) has been moving on and moving up for the past several tournaments. The Team USA parafencer has seen his results get better at each USA Fencing national tournament and IWAS World Cup.

On Sunday, his ascension continued with a gold medal and national championship in Parafencing Men’s Saber. While the pools and direct elimination bouts were held in the parafencing pod in the main competition hall, Hanssen and James Downing (Denver Fencing Center) moved to the raised finals strip to fence for gold.

A large crowd had gathered at that point to watch the fencers and cheer on each touch.

“I was actually nervous. Getting onto the final strip, being up on the stage, having the crowd there — it's a very different feeling,” Hanssen says. “And it takes some getting used to. But once we actually start fencing, I can kind of block everything out and focus on fencing. But it's just everything up until that point is a little nerve-wracking.”

It can be nerve-wracking, too, when you’re at a large tournament like a NAC and your coaches aren’t there at every moment. Most coaches have multiple responsibilities at a large national tournament, meaning they can’t be in several places at once.

So for the Cadet Men’s Epee Team from Medeo Fencing Club — Reid Kokenge, Michael Bezrodnov and Alexander Bezrodnov — that meant teammates were also strip coaches.

“When we were down and our coaches weren't around, we had to help each other out,” Alexander Bezrodnov says. “And we managed to get the lead back and get all the points back.”

“We fence each other in the club, so we know what we do best,” adds Michael Bezrodnov. “We play to our strengths and tell each other what works best against each opponent.”

Full Day 3 Results

Cadet Women's Foil — Team

Gold: JAK (Jaelyn A. Liu, Adeline Senic and Kaitlyn N. Tan)

Silver: EZEA (Ella Calise, Zizhuo (Zizi) Dai, Eleanor Li and Yuqiao Aprille Song)

Bronze: Team JARL (Anice Orvananos, Rebecca H. Cho, Lavender Lee and Jane Yu)

 

Cadet Men's Epee — Team

Gold: Medeo I (Reid Kokenge, Michael Bezrodnov and Alexander Bezrodnov)

Silver: New York Fencing Academy 1 (Dylan G. Kats, David Dodin, Nicholas Iarikov and Landon Shchur)
Bronze: Team EFA (Ryan S. Jeyoon, Sebastian Ke, Samuel Y. Lee and Nathaniel P. Wimmer)

 

Cadet Men’s Saber — Team

Gold: Body Go Touch (Silas Choi, Samuel Craig, Christopher Guffey and James Ren)

Silver: Tim Morehouse Fencing Club (Enzo Bera, Shaun M. Kim and Gabriel McCarthy)

Bronze: TIN (Triton Oh, Nazir Primus and Inkosi Brou)

 

Y14 Women's Epee

Gold: Angela Song (Cavalier Fencing Club)

Silver: Ziqi (Yoyo) Wang (Swords Fencing Studio)

Bronze: Regina Lee (Swords Fencing Studio)

Bronze: Indra Phukan (Swords Fencing Studio)

5: Sierra Springer (Olympia Fencing Center)

6: Scarlett Lee (New York Fencing Academy)

7: Alina Zhao (Windy City Fencing-Chicago)

8: Sanam Nazarova (Canada)

 

Y14 Women's Saber

Gold: Natalie Tsui (Manhattan Fencing Center)

Silver: Xuanyi Zhang (LA Fencing Academy of Pomona)

Bronze: Valentina Chiarelli (Manhattan Fencing Center)

Bronze: Sydney Liu (Halberstadt Fencers' Club)

5: Katie Jeong (Bergen Fencing Club)

6: Angelina Tse (Halberstadt Fencers' Club)

7: Sahana Gautam (Halberstadt Fencers' Club / The Fencing Center)

8: Anna Blake (Columbus Fencing And Fitness LLC)

 

Y14 Men's Foil

Gold: Jeidus DeSeranno (Renaissance Fencing Club)

Silver: Jonah Lee (Tim Morehouse Fencing Club (Port Chester))

Bronze: Jia Bao (Bowen) Xu (Canada)

Bronze: Biaya K. Tiya (Atlanta Fencers Club Foundation Inc. / Lotus Fencing Academy)

5: Nathan Canlas (LA International Fencing)

6: Eddie Ling (Silicon Valley Fencing Center)

7: Arjun Deshmukh (Austin Fencers Club)

8: Kristjan Dinsay (Elite Fencing Club)

 

Y12 Women's Foil

Gold: Sara Amr Hossny (South Brooklyn Fencing)

Silver: Iris Yang (Tim Morehouse Fencing Club (Port Chester))

Bronze: Kaylin Hsu (Precision Athletics Fencing Club)

Bronze: Grace Feng (Tim Morehouse Fencing Club (Port Chester))

5: Chloe Sun (SoCAL Fencing Center)

6: Renee Chen (Gutkovskiy Fencing Academy)

7: Audrey Yang (Maximum Fencing Club)

8: Emma Yang (Star Fencing Academy)

 

Y12 Men's Epee

Gold: Junzhe Shan (Dynamo Fencing Center Inc.)

Silver: Andy Zheng (Guanyi Fencing Academy / Twin Cities Fencing Club)

Bronze: Sangwook Park (Bay Area Fencing Club)

Bronze: Evan Midyany (New York Fencing Academy)

5: Levent Nakas (New York Fencing Academy)

6: Zhengyang (Allen) Chen (Swords Fencing Studio)

7: Aman Singleton (Olympia Fencing Center)

8: Kenneth Huang (Fencing Center of Chicago)

 

Y12 Men's Saber

Gold: Jayden Hwang (LA Fencing Academy of Pomona)

Silver: Jonathan Ng (Durkan Fencing Academy)

Bronze: Alex F. Huang (Lilov Fencing Academy)

Bronze: Benjamin Gurevich (Alle Fencing Club / Tim Morehouse Fencing Club)

5: Howard Li (LA Fencing Academy of Pomona)

6: Phillip Yang (South Bay Fencing Academy)

7: Rishab Anand (Nellya Fencers)

8: Ayden Li (Southern California Fencing Academy (SOCALFA))

 

Parafencing Men's Saber

Gold and National Champion: Noah Hanssen (Salle Palasz / Tri-Weapon Fencing Club)

Silver: James Downing (Denver Fencing Center)

Bronze: Nicholas Badeaux (Fencing Institute Of Texas)

Bronze: Gregory Tyler (Golubitsky Fencing Center)

5: Kevin Reeve (Kern Athletic Fencing Foundation)

6: Sam Long (Denver Fencing Center)

7: Terre Engdahl (Denver Fencing Center)

Day 3 Photo Album

Explore all the Day 3 photos in this Facebook album.

Tag(s): Updates  March 2023 NAC