USA Fencing

PLOVDIV, Bulgaria — In 67 years of epee competition at Junior & Cadet Worlds, nobody had ever become a two-time Junior World Champion for Team USA. That is, until Hadley Husisian (Fencers Club, Princeton University) showed up.

Husisian followed up her Junior gold medal in 2022 with another Junior gold in 2023, becoming the first Team USA athlete in history — women or man — to repeat as a Junior Epee world champion.

In fact, only two Americans have ever won Junior Epee world championships: Husisian (twice) and Kelley Hurley OLY.

“It's a really special feeling to have achieved this again, with all the support from my personal coach, Guillermo Madrigal, my Princeton University coach, Zoltan Dudas, as well as our national team coach, Natalie Dostert, and just everyone from Team USA who stayed and supported me. It just meant an incredible amount to hear them cheering for me. It just felt incredible to be able to achieve this with them at my side, especially for the second year in a row. It was just a great feeling.”

Husisian’s medal also means Team USA has earned a Junior Women’s Epee individual medal at four straight Junior & Cadet Worlds — a remarkable feat considering that Team USA had medaled in the event just once in the 10 years before this current streak began.

It was all part of a historic Friday at the 2023 Junior & Cadet Fencing World Championships in Bulgaria, where Husisian solidified her status as the current FIE No. 1 in Junior Women’s Epee and the woman some are calling the greatest Junior Women’s Epee fencer in Team USA history.

Husisian started the day in pools (no byes or exemptions, even for the world No. 1) and with a big target on her back. Anyone fencing her would surely know they were facing the reigning world champion and try to elevate their game accordingly. That could explain why she finished 4-2 in pools.

“Yeah, it was tough,” she says. “All my coaches and all the people who supported me were talking through that issue with me ahead of time, with trying not to think of this being my last Junior event ever. I was trying to take it one touch at a time and whether I was down or up by a lot of touches, trying to completely laser focus on one touch.”

Some fencers, once they reach 14 points might feel compelled to speed up their game to deliver that finishing touch. Husisian tries to combat that urge, and her coach Guillermo likes to remind her to think of that moment like it’s 0-0.

“That's something he likes to say a lot: not getting complacent,” she says. “Because you've built up a bit of a lead, especially with time running out, I think it's easy to try to just get a quick touch just because the stress gets to you. So that's something he works with me a lot on. Not letting the score or the nerves change the way you fence and what actions you know will work best.”

Shortly after Husisian’s back-to-back win streamed for all to see on the FIE YouTube channel, commenters on Instagram started calling Husisian the GOAT — the greatest of all time.

But she was quick to redirect that praise and suggest that this Junior & Cadet squad assembled in Plovdiv might be the greatest team of all time. (After seven days, Team USA has 14 medals — one shy of the all-time American record of 15 set in 2014 and 2022.)

“I think it's hard to make claims like that when all of Team USA is having such a successful week — just completely dominant,” she says. “I'm so proud of the way we've been able to succeed across the board in every weapon, every age, every gender category. I think we're just showing overall that Team USA is very dominant. It's not about any of us individually, just across the board, we've really showed a consistent performance.”

Speaking of, Husisian wasn’t the only Team USA medalist on Friday. In the Junior Men’s Epee competition, Samuel Imrek (Alliance Fencing Academy) earned bronze. For Imrek, this was a nice way to begin his Junior career after winning the Cadet Men’s Epee World Championship last year in Dubai.

“I mean, it's definitely a different game, that's for sure,” Imrek says. “You know, Cadets and Juniors, are very, very different. Juniors takes a lot more patience, so you have to adjust when you switch.”

Imrek is young enough that he’s eligible for two more Junior & Cadet Worlds after this one. But he didn’t need to be reminded of that.

“Yeah, this is just the start,” he says. “I’m hoping to become Junior World Champion. I have two more shots. And yeah, just continue to do well at World Cups, and getting No. 1 in the world.”

Imrek, who will finish the season as the No. 2-ranked Junior Men’s Epee fencer in the world, gave Team USA its first Junior Men’s Epee individual medal at Junior & Cadet Worlds since 2014, when Justin Yoo earned bronze. It’s just the fifth Junior Men’s Epee individual medal for Team USA since Junior Men’s Epee was added to the competition in 1956 — 67 years ago.

Junior Women’s Epee

• Gold: Hadley Husisian
  • Fencers Club, Princeton University
  • Coach: Guillermo Madrigal
• 33rd: Faith Park
  • DC Fencers Club, Harvard University
  • Coaches: Janusz Smolenski, Adam Maczik
• 39th: Ketki Ketkar
  • Kaizen Academy LLC, Cornell University
  • Coaches: Yasser Eldarawani, Susan Jennings, Ariana Klinkov
• 41st: Tierna Oxenreider
  • Columbia University
  • Coaches: Alex Zurabishvili, Michael Aufrichtig

Junior Men’s Epee

• Bronze: Samuel Imrek
  • Alliance Fencing Academy
  • Coaches: Andrey Geva, Natalie Dostert, Dorian Jimenez
• 17th: Gabriel Feinberg
  • Olympia Fencer Center, The Ohio State University
  • Coaches: Daniel Hondor, Katarzyna Dabrowa
• 37th: Miles Weiss
  • Alliance Fencing Academy, The Ohio State University
  • Coaches: Andrey Geva, Lewis Weiss and Kasia Dabrowa
• 59th: Henry Lawson
  • Fencers Club
  • Coaches: Guillermo Madrigal, Dwight Smith

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