USA Fencing

U.S. Women's Epee Team Finished 7^th at St Maur World Cup

By Anthony Bartkowski

The U.S. Women's Epee Team highlighted Team USA's international competitions over this past weekend from Feb. 19-21. The women's epee team fought back to a seventh-place finish at the World Cup in St. Maur, France, on Feb. 21.

In the deciding match, Team USA narrowly escaped the attack from Hungary, 32-33, to claim their final position. In the opening round of competition, the U.S. beat Korea 33-20 and then fell to Germany in the second round 43-36. In the consolation bracket, the Americans lost to fifth-place winner France, 45-39.

The U.S. team was lead by Lindsay Campbell (Wilmington, Del.), Danielle Henderson (Piscataway, N.J.), Courtney Hurley (San Antonio, Texas) and Kelley Hurley (San Antonio, Texas).

At the individual women's epee event, also in France, the Hurley sisters paced the squad with Courtney finishing 25^th, while Kelley placed 42^nd. Maya Lawrence (Teaneck, N.J.) fell to 43^rd. Rounding out the rest of the U.S. delegation were: Campbell at 89^th; Francesca Bassa (Houston) in 100^th; Henderson in 113^th; Lauren Willock (Astoria, N.Y.) in 121^st; and Amy Orlando (Cambridge, Mass.) in 130^th.

At the senior men's foil World Cup in Venice, Italy, the U.S. team finished 11^th that was led by 2008 Olympian Gerek Meinhardt (San Francisco) and 2009 World Championship team members Miles Chamley-Watson (Philadelphia), Kurt Getz (Rye, N.Y.) and Alexander Massialas (San Francisco).

The men's foil team dropped a close 37-33 decision to Korea and had to fight back in the consolations. Team USA dropped Romania 43-42, before they were edged by Ukraine, 43-42. In the 11^th-place bout, USA knocked off Canada with a 45-38 victory.

At the individual tournament for men's foil in Italy, Getz was the highest U.S. place winner with an 18^th-place finish. Meinhardt finished 34^th, while Turner Caldwell (San Francisco) placed 44^th. Chamley-Watson and Massialas finished 52^nd and 54^th, respectively. Rounding out the U.S. squad was Andras Horanyi (Boulder, Colo.) in 78^th; Henry Kennard (Astoria, N.Y.) in 87th; and Benjamin Parkins (The Woodlands, Texas) in 115^th.

At the Viana Do Castelo, Portugal World Cup for Junior Men's Foil athletes, Alan Markow (Prospect Heights, Ill.) finished 30^th overall. In the opening round, Markow dominated Leonard Stalder of Switzerland, 15-3. In the second round, Alan was out touched by Poland's Mikolaj Smura, 15-12.

A pair of New Yorkers were in Leipzig, Germany for the Senior Women's Foil Sparkasse Cup on Feb. 20. Kylei McGill (Forest Hills) placed 82^nd, and Kathleen Reckling (White Plains) finished 101^st.