USA Fencing

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – Three members of Team USA finished in the top 32 of the Padua Saber World Cup in Italy on Saturday.

With two World Cups remaining in the international leg of the Olympic qualifying season, all four members of the 2011 Senior World Team advanced to the table of 64, but 2008 Olympic silver medalists Tim Morehouse (New York City, N.Y.) and James Williams (New York City, N.Y.) met in the first round of competition.

After failing to qualify for the second day of competition at the Grand Prix in Plovdiv, Bulgaria in January, Morehouse needed a top-32 finish to move from #4 to #3 in the U.S. team standings while Williams was looking to bolster his #2 position with a solid result in Italy.

The bout came down to the final touch with Morehouse winning by a touch, 15-14, to move onto the table of 32 and Williams finishing 52^nd.

Daryl Homer (New York City, N.Y.) was exempt from the preliminary rounds on Friday as the 16^th ranked saber fencer in the world and he won his bout against Francois Regent (FRA), 15-14.

Ben Igoe (Staten Island, N.Y.) also advanced out of the table of 64 bout with a win against Marco Ciari (ITA), 15-14.

In the table of 32, Homer lost his bout against Jung-Hwan Kim (KOR), 15-8, to finish 17^th.

Morehouse placed 18^th after a 15-10 loss to Bolade Apithy (FRA).

Igoe lost his next bout against , 15-8, to Tiberiu Dolniceanu (ROU) and finished the day in 18^th place.

Complete results can be found at http://federscherma.it/risultati.asp.

Top eight and U.S. results are as follows, including athletes who were eliminated on Friday:

Padua Saber World Cup
1. Nicolas Limbach (GER)
2. Alexey Yakimenko (RUS)
3. Diego Occhiuzzi (ITA)
3. Bon Gil Gu (KOR)
5. Aldo Montano (ITA)
6. Rares Dumitrescu (ROU)
7. Jaime Marti (ESP)
8. Tiberiu Dolniceanu (ROU)

17. Daryl Homer (New York City, N.Y.)
18. Tim Morehouse (New York City, N.Y.)
19. Ben Igoe (Staten Island, N.Y.)
52. James Williams (New York City, N.Y.)

91. Ewan Douglas (Apache Junction, Ariz.)
93. Mihail Etropolski (Floral Park, N.Y.)
99. Avery Zuck (Portland, Ore.)
105. Jeff Spear (Wyantskill, N.Y.)
113. Luther Clement (New York City, N.Y.)
142. Rhys Douglas (Apache Junction, Ariz.)