(Virginia Beach, Va.) – Sixteen-year-old Sage Palmedo (Portland, Ore.) claimed her second gold medal of the season with her win in the junior (U20) women’s saber event on Friday at the November North American Cup at the Virginia Beach Convention Center.
Palmedo, who earned gold at the cadet (U17) competition at the October NAC in St. Louis, won her first three bouts in the direct elimination tables and moved into the medal rounds after a 15-10 victory over Sophie Keehan (Erie, Pa.) in the quarter-finals.
In the medal rounds, Palmedo fenced two members of the Nellya Fencers Club in back-to-back bouts.
“We’re all friends, but then at the tournament it gets serious,” said of the rivalry between the Oregon Fencing Alliance and the Nellya Fencers. “We know there’s always going to be back and forth and we’re all really competitive, but it doesn’t get in the way of friendships.”
Palmedo held an 8-7 lead over Lena Johnson (Peachtree City, Ga.) at the close of the first period and went on to close out the bout, 15-12.
In the other semifinal, 2012 Cadet World medalist Skyla Powers (Decatur, Ga.) led her Nellya teammate Margaret McDonald (Atlanta, Ga.), 13-11, but McDonald scored four straight touches to win the bout, 15-13.
Although Palmedo held a 4-2 lead early in the bout, McDonald was up, 8-5, by the end of the first period.
“In the first half I didn’t do too well, so I just wanted to keep it strong every single touch, so whenever I lost a touch I just had to get my head back together,” Palmedo said.
After the break, Palmedo reeled off six straight touches to take an 11-8 lead before going on to finish the bout, 15-12.
“I didn’t wake up this morning and think ‘today’s going to be my day,’ but I just fenced like I fence at the club and kept it a bout at a time and just kept calm and fenced the way I fence,” said Palmedo who will fence in the Division I women’s saber event on Sunday. “Last time I made top eight, so hopefully I’ll make at least that if not better. Div I matters a lot and there’s going to be a lot of tough people there. I think Monica [Aksamit] is going to be back and there are a lot of really good girls competing, so it’ll be tough.”
London Olympian Lee Kiefer (Lexington, Ky.) lost her first bout on U.S. soil since April of last year when the 2011 Senior World medalist fell to Canadian Eleanor Harvey in the gold medal final of the Division I women’s foil event.
Undefeated in the pools, Kiefer earned a bye into the table of 64 and won her next three direct elimination bouts to advance to the quarter-finals where she defeated 2012 Cadet World silver medalist Sara Taffel (New York City, N.Y.), 15-9.
In the semifinals, Kiefer started off strong with a 9-2 lead over her London teammate, Nicole Ross (New York City, N.Y.), but Ross fought back to cut Kiefer’s lead to 11-10 by the end of the second period period.
Ross tied the bout at 11 during the second period and scored again to earn the lead for the first time, but Kiefer outscored Ross, 3-1, to close out the bout, 15-13.
In the gold medal final, Kiefer and Harvey were tied at four after a conservative first period, but Harvey built a 12-7 lead in the second.
After a weapon change, Kiefer scored four straight touches to finish the second period down by one, 12-11.
Kiefer tied the bout at 12, but Harvey won the next three touches and won the gold by a score of 15-12.
In the junior men’s epee event, 17-year-old Lewis Weiss (Houston, Texas) advanced to his first ever North American Cup junior individual medal bout after finishing the pools ranked second out of 177 fencers.
After a 15-13 victory over Marc-Antoine Blais-Belanger (CAN) in the semifinals, Weiss faced British fencer Jack Hudson (GBR) in the gold medal bout.
Although Hudson represents Great Britain, the Princeton freshman trains as Weiss’s teammate at the Alliance Fencing Academy in Houston.
Hudson took a 4-0 lead in the first minute and went on to close out the bout, 15-5.
Two senior team events also were held on Friday.
Led by former Junior World Team Champion David Willette (Lafayette, Calif.), Penn State dominated the men’s team foil competition.
Willette and teammates Nobuo Bravo (San Francisco, Calif.), Jeremy Goldstein (Westport, Conn.) and David Gomez Tanamachi (MEX) opened with a 45-10 victory over Jacksonville Fencing Club in the quarter-finals.
In the semifinals, Willette, Goldstein and Bravo won eight of nine bouts against the Rhode Island Fencing Academy team of Drew Johnston (Whitehouse Station, N.J.), Samuel Barrmann (Barrington, R.I.) and James Whittle (Little Compton, R.I.) The Penn State squad finished the match with a score of 45-22.
Each of the four Penn State team members fenced in the gold medal bout where they built a 35-21 lead over the San Francisco Fencers Club.
In the final two bouts, Bravo and Willette shut out Joseph Lam (San Francisco, Calif.) and Hugo Brousse (San Francisco, Calif.) to finish the day with a 45-21 victory. Lam and Brousse were joined on the podium by their teammates David Hadler (San Francisco, Calif.) and Mitchell Shulman (San Francisco, Calif.)
Fencing for bronze, Jarred Gou (Saratoga, Calif.) was substituted in on the RIFAC squad in the seventh bout and took his team from a one-touch deficit to a 35-32 lead when he outscored Boston Fencing Club’s Deven Desai (Westborough, Mass.), 6-2.
Whittle tied Nathaniel Miller (Hopkinton, Mass) at five touches each in the eighth bout to take the score to 40-37 and Johnston anchored RIFAC to a bronze medal win after a victory over John Crumpler (Newton, Mass.) in the last bout and a final score of 45-41.
A trio of Canadians from team STH won the gold medal in the senior women’s team epee event.
Boston Fencing Club’s team of Helen Jolley (Weston, Mass.), Amy Orlando (Indianapolis, Ind.) and Cassandra Bates (Waltham, Mass.) built a 40-36 lead after the first eight bouts, but Emma Von Dadelszen brought the match back for STH with a 9-4 win over Orlando to take the match, 45-44.
In the gold medal bout, Dadelszen and teammates Flavie Martineau (CAN) and Susan Fredendall (CAN) defeated Salle Auriol Seattle, 45-28, to win gold.
Salle Auriol Seattle’s team of Julee Floyd (Seattle, Wash.), Susan Fredendall (Seattle, Wash.) and Kundry Haberkern (Seattle, Wash.) finished the day with a silver medal.
Boston Fencing Club’s team of Jolley, Orlando and Bates were joined in the bronze medal match by Monica Weindling (Belmont, Mass.) as BFC defeated RIFAc’s team of Bailey Partridge (Swansea, Mass.), Parand Jalili (East Walpole, Mass.) and Dominique Tannous (North Providence, R.i.) by a score of 45-29.
Competition continues on Saturday with the schedule as follows (All times are approximate and are start times, not check-in times):
Saturday, November 10
8:30 a.m.
Division I Women’s Individual Epee
Junior Men’s Individual Foil
11 a.m.
Senior Women’s Team Saber
1 p.m.
Division I Men’s Individual Epee
1:30 p.m.
Senior Men’s Team Epee
Visit www.usfencingresults.com for complete results.
Top eight results are as follows:
Division I Women’s Individual Foil
1. Eleanor Harvey (CAN)
2. Lee Kiefer (Lexington, Ky.)
3. Nicole Ross (New York City, N.Y.)
3. Madison Zeiss (Notre Dame, Ind.)
5. Sara Taffel (New York City, N.Y.)
6. Nzingha Prescod (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
7. Doris Willette (Lafayette, Calif.)
8. Ambika Singh (Skillman, N.J.)
Junior Women’s Individual Saber
1. Sage Palmedo (Portland, Ore.)
2. Margaret McDonald (Atlanta, Ga.)
3. Lena Johnson (Peachtree City, Ga.)
3. Skyla Powers (Decatur, Ga.)
5. Alisha Gomez (Wayne, N.J.)
6. Gillian Litynski (Niskayuna, N.Y.)
7. Sophie Keehan (Erie, Pa.)
8. Haley Fisher (Kennesaw, Ga.)
Junior Men’s Individual Epee
1. Jack Hudson (GBR)
2. Lewis Weiss (Houston, Texas)
3. Marc-Antoine Blais-Belanger (CAN)
3. Alexander Eldeib (Burke, Va.)
5. Jake Rayis (Chatsworth, Calif.)
6. Conor Shepard (Colleyville, Texas)
7. Joe Guinan III (River Forest, Ill.)
8. Trevor Shepard (Castaic, Calif.)
Senior Men’s Team Foil
1. Penn State University
2. SFFC
3. RIFAC
4. Boston Fencing Club
5. University of California – San Diego
6. Ottawa A
7. Soylent Green
8. Jacksonville Fencing Club
Senior Women’s Team Epee
1. STH
2. Salle Auriol Seattle
3. Boston Fencing Club
4. RIFAC
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