(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – Seventeen-year-old Alexander Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.) earned his second straight top-eight World Cup finish in as many starts this season on Saturday at the La Coruna Foil World Cup in Spain.
Exempt from the preliminary rounds on Friday due to his #12 seed, Massialas opened with a 15-9 win over Ghislain Perrier (FRA) in the table of 64.
In the table of 32, Massialas defeated Young Ki Son (KOR), 15-12, and went on to earn another 15-12 victory in his table of 16 bout against Yusuke Fukuda (JPN).
Massialas’s quarter-final bout was a rematch against Valerio Aspromonte (ITA) – the reigning Senior World silver medalist who Massialas defeated en route to winning bronze at the Seoul Foil World Cup last year.
This time, Aspromonte took the bout, 15-9, and went on to win the bronze.
As the race towards Olympic qualification continues, 20-year-old David Willette (Lafayette, Calif.) made a move to close the gap between his fifth-place position in the team rankings and the fourth spot held by 2010 Senior World medalist Gerek Meinhardt (San Francisco, Calif.) who trains with Willette and Massialas at the Massialas Foundation at Halberstadt.
Willette, who was seeded 23rd after an undefeated run in the pools on Friday, won his opening bout against Michele Di Francisca (ITA), 15-6, and defeated Volodymyr Koltygo (UKR), 15-8, to advance to the table of 16.
In the next round, 2008 Olympian Byung-Chul Choi (KOR) won the bout, 15-7, and Willette finished 12th overall.
Following his bronze medal finish in Paris two weeks ago, eighth seed Race Imboden (Brooklyn, N.Y.) was exempt from the preliminary rounds and opened with a 15-9 win over Alessio Foconi (ITA) in the table of 64.
In the table of 32, however, Imboden lost to 2004 Olympic fourth-place finisher Renal Ganeev (RUS), 15-9, and ended the day in 19th place.
Meinhardt, who is presently trying to move from fourth in the U.S. rankings to third, picked up points for a 22nd place finish.
The Beijing Olympian won his first bout against Suguru Awaji (JPN), 15-10, but lost in the table of 32 to four-time Senior World Champion Peter Joppich (GER), 15-9.
Benjamin Parkins (The Woodlands, Texas), Michael Woo (Wayne, N.J.) and Michael Dudey (Bellaire, Texas) each lost his opening bout in the table of 64.
Parkins lost to Ryo Miyake (JPN), 15-6, and placed 39th.
Dudey finished 44th after a 15-10 loss to Ganeev.
Competing in his second Senior World Cup ever, Woo advanced to the table of 64 for the first time and finished 45th after a 15-10 loss to Ganeev.
Full results are available at http://www.fgesgrima.com/cmundo/2012/clasgral.php.
Top eight and U.S. results are as follows, including athletes who placed outside the top 64 on Friday:
La Coruna Foil World Cup
1. Andrea Cassara (ITA)
2. Erwan Pechoux (FRA)
3. Valerio Aspromonte (ITA)
3. Byung-Chul (KOR)
5. Alexey Cheremisinov (RUS)
6. Sheng Lei (CHN)
7. Alexander Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.)
8. Yuki Ota (JPN)
12. David Willette (Lafayette, Calif.)
19. Race Imboden (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
22. Gerek Meinhardt (San Francisco, Calif.)
39. Benjamin Parkins (The Woodlands, Texas)
44. Michael Dudey (Bellaire, Texas)
45. Michael Woo (Wayne, N.J.)
68. Miles Chamley-Watson (Philadelphia, Pa.)
85. Jeremy Goldstein (Westport, Conn.)
96. Jerry Chang (Mountain View, Calif.)
133. Kurt Getz (Rye, N.Y.)
137. Adam Elkassas (Du Bois, Pa.)
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