Second Half of Summer Nationals Starts With Announcement
ATLANTA, Ga. – Twenty-four American fencers will be heading to Paris, France for the 2010 Senior World Championships, Nov. 4-13. All six Division One individual events have concluded as the second half of the U.S. Fencing Summer National Championships kicked off.
Friday was a good day for Dagmara Wozniak (Avenel, N.J.), who qualified for the World Championships and won the Senior Women’s Team Saber national championship. Her team, Manhattan Fencing Center, took down Bergen Fencing Club in a 45-41 nailbiter of a final.
“Today, I feel like I could have fenced better but I had a very strong club team behind me,” Wozniak said. “Team spirit, club mates, they were able to kind of pick me up and we all fenced really well.”
Wozniak was joined by Samantha Roberts, Tiki Kastor and Julia Klepner. Bergen F.C., which also reached the Under 19 Women’s Team Foil final, consists of World Championship alternate Celina Merza (Wayne, N.J.), Alisha Gomez and Francesca Russo.
“We have good girls, Dagmara Wozniak, she’s member of national team, she’s number two in united states team,” said Yuri Gelman, Manhattan F.C. Head Saber Coach. “Samantha is a member of the junior national team just this year, so those are two very strong fencers. And two very young, like Tiki Kastor is very young and Julia Klepner, very, very young. But they’re both just coming up, so it’s a pleasure to work with those girls and I see how they’re growing and it’s great to win.”
Two-time Olympians Mariel Zagunis (Beaverton, Ore.) and Seth Kelsey (Brush Prairie, Wash.) headline the World Championship Team. Olympic silver medalists Tim Morehouse (Bronx, N.Y.) and James Williams (Sacramento, Calif.) lead the way in men’s saber. Beijing Olympians Gerek Meinhardt (San Francisco, Calif.) and Kelley Hurley (San Antonio, Texas) bring experience to men’s foil and women’s epee, respectively. Kelley’s sister, Courtney Hurley (San Antonio, Texas) and Alexander Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.) join Morehouse and Kelsey as reigning Division One national champions that will represent the U.S. in France.
Morehouse defeated fellow World Championship qualifier Ben Igoe (New York, N.Y.) by one touch, 15-14, in the men’s saber national championship final.
“It’s always good to have him on your side, rather than against you,” Igoe said. “So I’m looking forward to both Zonals and World Championships, where he’ll be on my team for a change.”
The ten-day competition takes place in Hall B5 of the Georgia World Congress Center and is free and open to the public. The latest results from Summer Nationals can be found at http://usfencing.org/events/3963/page/9734.
Thirteen more national championship titles will be awarded on Saturday. Follow the live Tweeting online at www.twitter.com/usfencing.
The complete World Championship team is attached and below:
Men’s Epee Team: Seth Kelsey, Cody Mattern, Benjamin Ungar, Benjamin Bratton
Alternates: Eric Hansen, Jon Normile, Peter French, Adam Rodney
Men’s Foil Team: Miles Chamley-Watson, Gerek Meinhardt, Kurt Getz, Alexander Massialas
Alternates: David Willette, Brian Kaneshige, Benjamin Parkins, Andras Horanyi
Men’s Saber Team: Timothy Morehouse, Daryl Homer, Benjamin Igoe, James Williams
Alternates: Mihail Etropolski, Jeffrey Spear, Daniel Bak, Andrew Fischl
Women’s Epee Team: Lindsay Campbell, Courtney Hurley, Kelley Hurley, Lauren Willock
Alternates: Maya Lawrence, Susannah Scanlan, Francesca Bassa, Simone Barrette
Women’s Foil Team: Nzingha Prescod, Lee Kiefer, Doris Willette, Nicole Ross
Alternates: Ambika Singh, Margaret Lu, Mona Shaito, Luona Wang
Women’s Saber Team: Mariel Zagunis, Dagmara Wozniak, Ibtihaj Muhammad, Daria Schneider
Alternates: Emily Jacobson, Monica Aksamit, Emma Baratta, Celina Merza
About U.S. Fencing Association: The United States Fencing Association (USFA) is the recognized NGB for the sport of fencing in the United States. The USFA was founded in 1891 as the Amateur Fencers League of America (AFLA) by a group of New York fencers seeking independence from the Amateur Athletic Union. The AFLA changed its name to the United States Fencing Association in 1981. The USFA is affiliated with the Féderation Internationale d'Escrime (FIE), the international federation for fencing founded in Paris in 1913. The USFA was incorporated as a non-profit corporation in Pennsylvania in 1964 and in Colorado in 1993 in compliance with the Amateur Sports Act and opened its national office at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. in August of 1982. For more visit www.usfencing.org, www.facebook.com/usfencing or www.twitter.com/usfencing.
