USA Fencing

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – After earning two medals in the individual events on Saturday, Team USA added earned two more podium finishes in the team evens on Sunday at the Klagenfurt Cadet European Epee Cup.

The U.S. men’s team of Porter Hesslegrave (Los Angeles, Calif.), Anton Piskovatskov (Houston, Texas), Ariel Simmons (Bellaire, Texas) and Justin Yoo (La Verne, Calif.) earned the gold medal in the U17 event.

Competing as the tournament’s top seed, USA 1 earned a bye into the quarter-finals where the Americans won eight of nine bouts against Israel 1 and Piskovatskov anchored USA 1 to a 45-28 win.

In the semifinals, USA 1 was tied with Hungary at 18 when Piskovatskov outscored Csaba Fenyvesi, 7-3, in the fifth bout.

In the gold medal bout, USA 1 faced Austria 1 where Yoo, Piskovatskov and Hesslegrave led from start to finish and won the match, 45-27.

In earlier rounds, Austria 1 defeated the USA 2 team of Adam Frank (Portland, Ore.), Daniel Small (Beaverton, Ore.) and Darius Zacharakis (Houston, Texas) by a score of 45-38 in the quarter-finals.

USA 2 rebounded to win two more bouts against Switzerland, 45-35, and Romania, 45-41, to finish in fifth place.

Following her silver medal win on Saturday, Amanda Sirico (Bowie, Md.) returned on Sunday to compete in the team event with Madeline Kehl (Valencia, Calif.), Madeline Antekeier (Houston, Texas) and Kasia Nixon (Los Angeles, Calif.)

Seeded second in the tables, USA 1 earned a bye into the table of 16 where Kehl anchored the four-person team to a 45-15 win over Austria 4.

In the quarter-finals, Sirico stepped into the anchor role. With a 31-27 lead against Austria 1, Sirico scored 14 touches against Paula Schmidl to win the match, 45-31.

Sirico, Kehl and Nixon fenced in the semifinal bout where Nixon anchored USA 1 to a 45-30 victory over Germany 2.

USA 1 met Germany’s first team in the gold medal final. With the score tied at 32 after the eighth bout, Sirico came up against Nadine Stahlberg in the final bout which was a rematch of the gold medal final in the individual competition.

Stahlberg outscored Sirico, 12-7, to earn the victory, 44-39, for Germany 1.

Katie Angen (Los Angeles, Calif.), Claire Dinhut (Los Angeles, Calif.), Jennifer Horowitz (Los Angeles, Calif.) and Sarah Waller (McKinney, Texas) competed on USA 2.

After a bye into the table of 16, Angen anchored the quartet to a 30-29 victory over Romania.

In the quarter-finals, Serbia led built a 30-21 lead after the sixth bout. Although Waller, Horowitz and Dinhut won each of the next three bouts, but Serbia took the win, 45-43.

In the fifth-eighth place table, Angen returned as anchor where she, Horowitz and Waller defeated Switzerland 2, 45-41.

Angen, Waller and Horowitz fenced Austria 1 for fifth place.

With Austria 1 in the lead, 33-32, Angen Katharina Schmedler, 13-6, to give USA 1 the victory, 45-39.

Top eight results are as follows:

Men’s Team Klagenfurt Cadet European Epee Cup
1. USA 1
2. Austria 1
3. Hngary
4. Israel 2
5. USA 2
6. Romania
7. Switzerland
8. Israel 1

Women’s Team Klagenfurt Cadet European Epee Cup
1. Germany 1
2. USA 1
3. Germany 2
4. Serbia
5. USA 2
6. Austria 1
7. Switzerland 1
8. Switzerland 2