USA Fencing

(Kansas City, Mo.) – Reigning Pan American Champion Daryl Homer (New York City, N.Y.) earned his first North American Cup victory in just over 18 months on Monday when he won gold in the Division I saber event at the December NAC in Kansas City.

The win also gives Homer valuable qualifying points in the National Point Standings that will be used to select the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team in April.

“It feels pretty good.  I haven’t won a NAC in awhile so I’m pretty pumped up about this one, but I’ve been training pretty hard, so this is a step in the right direction,” Homer said.

Competing in a field of 100 athletes, Homer’s seventh seed at the conclusion of the pools earned him a bye into the table of 64 where he defeated Travis Tibbetts (Santa Barbara, Calif.), 15-9.

Homer advanced to the quarter-finals after his next two wins against David Akrami (Plano, Texas), 15-10, and Kevin Hassett (Beaverton, Ore.), 15-2.

In the quarters, Homer led 2002 Cadet World medalist Luther Clement (New York City, N.Y.), 8-2, at the break, but Clement came back to take a 14-13 lead late in the bout. Homer scored the next touch to tie the bout and followed with another point to earn the win, 15-14.

“I was being pretty aggressive at the beginning and after the break I relaxed a bit and he made a comeback so it was a pretty close bout at the end,” Homer said.

Homer’s semifinal bout pitted him against 2008 Olympic silver medalist Tim Morehouse (New York City, N.Y.) The bout would be a rematch of the Division I National final between the two in which Homer injured his ankle and Morehouse won the hotly contested bout.

“I knew the bout with Tim was going to be tough. Everyone knows what happened with our last bout at Nationals and that was a pretty intense bout and we both wanted to make sure nothing crazy happened and it didn’t get out of hand because we wanted to be good competitors and good teammates,” Homer said.

With Homer up, 8-3, at the break, Morehouse came back to come within three touches of Homer at 13-10.

Homer earned the next touch to bring the score to 14-10; however, Morehouse went on a three-touch run to close the gap again.

On the next exchange, Homer scored the final touch of the bout to advance to the gold medal final against 2008 Olympic team silver medalist James Williams (New York City, N.Y.)

In the final, Homer came out fast again with a 8-2 lead at the half, but Williams brought the score to 10-7 before Homer went on a five-touch streak to end the bout, 15-10.

“I know a pretty good footwork preparation that works with James that allows me to see what’s going on so I pretty much used that for the beginning part of the bout and then he figured it out, so I had to switch from there,” Homer said. “I’d say that’s a pretty characteristic bout for James and I. Generally one of us goes up big and the other comes back and the other one comes back again so it was a pretty good bout.”

Although Williams, Morehouse and Homer all train together at the Manhattan Fencing Center and have competed on three World Championship Teams together, Homer said it isn’t much different to compete against his teammates at events.

“We’re really competitive at practice. We fight a lot. We argue a lot. And then we work it all out. We’re pretty aggressive as a group. We’re saber fencers,” he said.

After the NAC Homer said he plans on returning to New York to prepare for the January NAC in Portland as well as the upcoming World Cup season that begins in February.

“Right now I just want to keep getting better. So I want to get back to practice and dissect what went well and what went wrong ‘cause I didn’t beat everyone 15-0 so I’ve clearly got stuff I can work on,” Homer said.

In the veteran events, James Adams (Rockville, Md.) and Elizabeth Kocab (Westland, Mich.) each earned their second titles of the weekend.

Adams, who won two medals at the Veteran Worlds in October, earned a bye into the semifinals in the veteran +70 men’s foil event before defeating Marcel Miernik (Irvington, N.Y.) and Davis Carvey (Seattle, Wash.) by scores of 10-5 in the semis and gold medal bout respectively. The win came after Adams won gold in the +70 epee event on Sunday and bronze in the +70 saber on Friday.

Kocab followed her veteran 60-69 epee win on Sunday with a gold medal in the veteran +40 epee event on Monday when she defeated Cristina Gordet (Somerville, Mass.), 9-7, in the gold medal final.

In the +70 women’s foil event, Diane Reckling (White Plains, N.Y.) won the gold medal after a 10-6 win over Bettie Graham (Washington, D.C.) The medals marked the second trip to the podium for both athletes as Reckling won silver and Graham took home the bronze in the veteran +70 epee event on Saturday.

Seven-time Veteran World Team member Judith Offerle (Winnetka, Ill.) also earned multiple medals this weekend. After winning bronze in the veteran +40 foil on Saturday and silver in the veteran 60-69 saber on Friday, Offerle earned the veteran 60-69 title on Sunday. Offerle won her final bout against two-time Veteran World Team member Madelon Rosenfeld (New York City, N.Y.), 10-8, to earn the gold medal.

Joseph Biebel (Bayside, Wis.), a 2003 Veteran World Champion and two-time silver medalist, earned the gold medal in the veteran 60-69 foil on Monday. Biebel defeated Joseph Streb (Columbus, Ohio), 10-2, in the gold medal final.

Two members of the 2011 Veteran World Team earned gold in the 50-59 foil events.

Jennette Starks-Faulkner (Middletown, Conn.), a silver medalist from this year’s World Championship event, defeated Kristin Vines (Chatanooga, Tenn.), 10-3, in the final bout.

Meanwhile, Edward Kaihatsu (Skokie, Ill.) opened the domestic season with a gold medal title after his final win against Robert Pavlovich (Manhasset, N.Y.), 10-9.

Seventeen-year-old Petra Khan (Beaverton, Ore.) earned her second NAC medal of the year when she won gold in the Division II women’s saber event after taking the Division III saber bronze at the NAC in March. Khan defeated 13-year-old Brooke Sirico (Bowie, Md.), 15-10, in the final bout.

James Grant (Centennial, Colo.) won the Division II men’s epee event in which he defeated Joshua Potter (Columbia, Mo.), 15-14, in the gold medal final.

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

Division I Men’s Saber
1. Daryl Homer (New York City, N.Y.)
2. James Williams (Sacramento, Calif.)
3. Jeff Spear (Wynantskill, N.Y.)
3. Tim Morehouse (New York City, N.Y.)
5. Luther Clement (New York City, N.Y.)
6. Aleksander Ochocki (Clark, N.J.)
7. Sean Buckley (Secaucus, N.J.)
8. Ewan Douglas (Apache Junction, Ariz.)

Veteran Women’s Epee
1. Elizabeth Kocab (Westland, Mich.)
2. Cristina Gordet (Somerville, Mass.)
3. Valerie Asher (Bethesda, Md.)
3. Carola Schmidt (Seattle, Wash.)
5. Maria Copelan (Portland, Ore.)
6. Natalia Stavisky (Brookline, Mass.)
7. Amy Montoya (Las Vegas, Nev.)
8. Cynthia Ameli (Las Vegas, Nev.)

Veteran Women’s +70 Foil
1. Diane Reckling (White Plains, N.Y.)
2. Bettie Graham (Washington, D.C.)
3. Catherine Maier (Atlanta, Ga.)
3. Patricia Bedrosian (Malibu, Calif.)
5. Judith Evans (Greenwich, Conn.)
6. Una Jackson (Hilton Head, S.C.)

Veteran Men’s +70 Foil
1. James Adams (Rockville, Md.)
2. Davis Carvey (Seattle, Wash.)
3. Marcel Miernik (Irvington, N.Y.)
3. Edward Sady (Fairfax, Va.)
5. Tung-Shan Chang (Lexington, Mass.)
6. Earl Shapiro (Stone Mountain, Ga.)
7. Gaby Weisz (CAN)

Veteran Women’s 60-69 Foil
1. Judith Offerle (Winnetka, Ill.)
2. Madelon Rosenfeld (New York City, N.Y.)
3. Joanne Stevens (New York City, N.Y.)
3. Deborah Theriault (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
5. Pamela Katz (Buckeye, Ariz.)
6. Muriel Cawthorn (Rehoboth, Mass.)
7. Marsha Reichman (Bethesda, Md.)
8. Patricia Lutton (Cupertino, Calif.)

Veteran Men’s 60-69 Foil
1. Joseph Biebel (Bayside, Wis.)
2. Joseph Streb (Columbus, Ohio)
3. Kenneth Floro (St. Louis, Mo.)
3. Neal White (Chicago, Ill.)
5. Rinaldo Campana (McLean, Va.)
6. Adrian Sessions (Los Altos, Calif.)
7. Donald Melchior (Framingham, Mass.)
8. Bruce Milligan (Savage, Md.)

Veteran Women’s 50-59 Foil
1. Jennette Starks-Faulkner (Middletown, Conn.)
2. Kristin Vines (Chatanooga, Tenn.)
3. Anne-Marie Walters (Chattanooga, Tenn.)
3. Ursula Szpak (Trophy Club, Texas)
5. Elizabeth Merritt (Washington, D.C.)
6. Michelle Verhave (Purdys, N.Y.)
7. Rebecca Schneider (Culber, Ind.)
8. Dorothy Carney (Charlottesville, Va.)

Veteran Men’s 50-59 Foil
1. Edward Kaihatsu (Skokie, Ill.)
2. Robert Pavlovich (Manhasset, N.Y.)
3. David Drake (San Diego, Calif.)
3. Sam Jones (Pelham, Ala.)
5. Thomas Lutton (Cupertino, Calif.)
6. Jamie Douraghy (Los Angeles, Calif.)
7. Christopher Hagen (Brooklyn Center, Minn.)
8. Reynaldo Navarro (Irvine, Calif.)

Division II Women’s Saber
1. Petra Khan (Beaverton, Ore.)
2. Brooke Sirico (Bowie, Md.)
3. Julia Abelsky (Atlanta, Ga.)
3. Katherine Sachs (Greenwich, Conn.)
5. Chelsea Martinez (Franklin Lakes, N.J.)
6. Melissa Curioso (Barrington, R.I.)
7. Azaline Dunlap-Smith (Machias, Maine)
8. Catherine Hua (Minneapolis, Minn.)

Division II Men’s Epee
1. James Grant (Centennial, Colo.)
2. Joshua Potter (Columbia, Mo.)
3. Tudor Colcisca (Mesa, Ariz.)
3. Andrew Radu (Great Neck, N.Y.)
5. Leo Gandley (Sandy, Utah)
6. Dane Gullakson (Gainesville, Fla.)
7. Max Gould (Maplewood, Fla.)
8. Andrew Davis (Madison, Ala.)