USA Fencing

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Fencing, often referred to as “physical chess,” demands an sharp mind and a fit body. The sport's track record of propelling young individuals to excel in high school and beyond speaks volumes about its transformative impact.

Every season as Summer Nationals arrives, USA Fencing applauds the efforts of these high school fencers who have harmoniously balanced academic excellence and athletic prowess through two distinguished programs:

• The Absolute Fencing Gear All-Academic Team, a salute to our scholar-athletes with GPAs ranging from 3.4 to 3.84 (for the Second Team), and soaring to 3.85 or higher (for the First Team).

• The USA Fencing High School All-American Program, an acknowledgment of our fencers who have earned or maintained an “E” rating (for the Honorable Mention Team), a “C” or “D” rating (for the Second Team), or an “A” or “B” rating (for the First Team) based on their performance on the strip.

In March, we flung open the doors for applications, providing fencers a window of just over two months to gather and submit their information by the June 5 deadline.

Let’s meet the teams!

The 2022-23 Absolute Fencing Gear All-Academic Team has chosen 909 brilliant student-athletes to honor, including:

• 816 members of the First Team

• 93 members of the Second Team

Peruse the complete list at the end of this article.

Beyond the acknowledgment of a certificate, Absolute Fencing takes a step further to award a total of $10,000 in scholarship funds to four deserving fencers from the All-Academic Team.

After meticulous evaluation of essays and applications, Absolute Fencing Gear has chosen its four scholarship recipients — two at the $4,000 level and two at the $1,000 level. The 2022-23 scholarship recipients are:

• $4,000: Ava Wade-Currie, an epee fencer from the Olympia Fencing Center
• $4,000: Tom Huang, a saber fencer representing Zeta Fencing
• $1,000: Alexandra Drovetsky, an epee fencer from Medeo Fencing Club
• $1,000: Kate Freeman, an epee fencer from the Denver Fencing Center

Meet the teams and read the scholarship recipients' winning essays here.

The 2022-23 USA Fencing High School All-American Teams illuminate the achievements of 746 top-notch high school fencers, including:

• 372 members of the First Team
• 255 members of the Second Team
• 119 members of the Honorable Mention Team

Meet the teams here.

Stay tuned for the 2023-24 All-Academic and All-American Team applications, which will be available on our website in March or April of 2024.