USA Fencing

 

 

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – Some athletes are said to have favorite cities – places an athlete wins at repeatedly from season to season.

For 15-year-olds Raymond Chen (Dallas, Texas) and Sabrina Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.), that city just might be Budapest, Hungary.

It was at the 2011 Budapest Cadet European Foil Cup that both athletes won their first international medals – gold for Chen and bronze for Massialas.

Both athletes returned to Budapest for the first international cadet foil tournament of the season and each will travel home with another medal.

A member of the 2012 Cadet World Championship Team, Chen will move up to a top-three U.S. ranking in cadet men’s foil after earning his second straight gold medal at the Budapest Event.

After a 4-1 result in the pools on Saturday, Chen emerged into the direct elimination tables with a bye into the table of 128 where he defeated Eren Sen (TUR), 15-7.

Chen won his next two bouts over Niko Russ (AUT), 15-5, and Kasper Paluszkiewicz (POL), 15-14, to advance to the table of 16 where defeated his Cadet World teammate Axel Kiefer (Lexington, Ky.), 15-12.

Chen qualified for the quarter-finals after a 15-11 victory over Guillaume Bianchi (ITA).

Seeded second after the pools, 16-old Darren Mei (Foster City, Calif.) also won five straight direct elimination bouts and moved into the quarter-final rounds.

Due to the repechage format for the tournament, only four athletes advance to the quarter-finals via the direct elimination table. Four more athletes qualify for the final rounds by winning the repechage table.

A silver medalist at the final cadet international tournament of the 2011-2012 season in Pisa last February, 16-year-old James Sands (New York City, N.Y.) was seeded third after the pools and won his first four DE bouts, but he fell to the repechage after losing his last DE bout to Aubin Meyer (FRA), 15-9.

Sands edged Kiefer in the repechage, 15-14, to advance to the quarters.

Fourteen-year-old Jarred Gou (Saratoga, Calif.) was seeded fourth after the pools and won his next two bouts before losing to Alexandre Sido (FRA), 15-6, in the table of 32.

Gou came back from the loss and won his next three bouts to advance to the quarters.

Chen and Sands secured Team USA’s first two medals of the weekend when Chen defeated Andrze Rzadkowski (POL), 15-8, in the quarters and Sands won his rematch against Meyer, 15-7.

Mei lost his quarter-final bout to Ismail Bora Biren (TUR), 15-12, but his fifth-place result marked his best result in international competition.

Gou met up with Sido for the second time of the day, but the Frenchman won the bout, 15-6, and Gou placed sixth – another personal best result for a U.S. team member.

In the semifinals, Sands lost to Biren, 15-6, and ended the day with a bronze medal.

Chen won his next bout against Sido, 15-13, and went on to defeat Biren, 15-5, to win the gold.

In addition to being the only team to put four fencers in the top eight, Team USA was the only nation to have two fencers earn medals in the same event in Budapest.

Returning to Budapest to improve on her bronze medal from 2011, Massialas came into the event as the #1 cadet women’s foil fencer in the United States and one of the top seeded U.S. athletes after the pools where she finished fourth.

Massialas earned a bye into the table of 64 where she defeated teammate Stefani Kahookele (San Francisco, Calif.), 15-3.

In the table of 32, Massialas lost to eventual bronze medalist Aikaterini-Maria Kontochristopoulou (GRE), 15-7.

Massialas earned three straight wins in the repechage to advance to the quarter-finals.

Massialas’s teammate, Rebecca Stanford (Brooklyn, N.Y.), won four bouts in the direct elimination table and was seeded fourth in the quarter-finals of the 16-year-old’s first European tournament.

As Massialas was seeded fifth in the quarter-finals, she fenced Stanford and won the bout, 15-2. Stanford finished seventh and Massialas moved on to the semifinals where Massialas dominated her bout against Claudia Borella (ITA), 15-3.

In the gold medal bout, Massialas fell to Hungarian Viktoria Mesteri-Schmel, 15-11, and ended the day with a silver medal.

All three medalists will return to the States for the first domestic competition of the season from Oct. 11-15 at the October North American Cup in St. Louis.

Click here to view complete men’s results.

Click here to view complete women’s results.

Top eight and U.S. results are as follows:

Women’s Budapest Cadet European Foil Cup
1. Viktoria Mesteri-Schmel (HUN)
2. Sabrina Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.)
3. Claudia Borella (ITA)
3. Aikaterini-Maria Kontochristopoulou (GRE)
5. Elisabetta Bianchin (ITA)
6. Malina Calugareanu (ROU)
7. Rebecca Stanford (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
8. Kata Kondricz (HUN)

18. Morgan Partridge (Swansea, Mass.)
19. Simone Unwalla (Great Falls, Va.)
20. Quinn Crum (Providence, R.I.)
22. Iman Blow (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
24. Kaila Budofsky (New York City, N.Y.)
25. Kate Northrop (Bridgewater, N.J.)
28. Stefani Deschner (Mechanicsville, Va.)
32. Nicole Vaiani (Belma, N.J.)
36. Taylor Chin (Cupertino, Calif.)
38. Elyssa Kleiner (San Francisco, Calif.)
40. Samantha Viqueira (Maplewood, N.J.)
40. Gabriella Zusin (New York, N.Y.)
44. Naomi Popkin (Ridgewood, N.J.)
54. Stefani Kahookele (San Francisco, Calif.)
67. Clarissa Allen (Newtown, Pa.)
83. Sarah Suhyun Pak (Upper Saddle River, N.J.)
87. Julia Daum (Portland, Ore.)

Men’s Budapest Cadet European Foil Cup
1. Raymond Chen (Dallas, Texas)
2. Ismail Bora Biren (TUR)
3. James Sands (New York City, N.Y.)
3. Alexandre Sido (FRA)
5. Darren Mei (Foster City, Calif.)
6. Jarred Gou (Saratoga, Calif.)
6. Andrzej Rzadkowski (POL)
8. Aubin Meyer (FRA)

11. Axel Kiefer (Lexington, Ky.)
12. Tyler Endee (Jackson, N.J.)
13. Gregory Mitberg (Beaverton, Ore.)
15. Matthew Branman (Villanova, Pa.)
16. Samuel Moelis (Hewlett, N.Y.)
18. Jan Maceczek (Marlboro, N.J.)
20. Brian Howard (Petaluma, Calif.) 
34. George Haglund (Califon, N.J.)
39. Nolen Scruggs (Ozone Park, N.Y.)
42. William Upbin (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
53. Thomas Dudey (Bellaire, Texas)
56. David Hadler (San Francisco, Calif.)
60. Mohamed Hassan (St. Louis, Mo.)
66. Daniel Holley (Pleasant Grove, Utah)
87. Andre Cornman (Tiburon, Calif.)
105. Michael Antipas (Stony Brook, N.Y.)