2009 Cadet World Silver Medalist to Compete at Opening North American Cup in Iowa
By Anthony Bartkowski
A slew of top-ranked American cadet fencers lead the way to start the 2009 North American Cup (NAC) tournaments starting Friday at the Iowa Event Center's HyVee Hall in Des Moines and concluding on Sunday, Oct. 11. Lee Kiefer (Lexington, Ky.) headlines the Cadet Women's Foil division, who won the 2009 Summer Nationals and brought home a silver medal from the 2009 Cadet World Championships. Also competing for the Cadet Women's Foil title will be Madison Zeiss (Los Angeles) and Mona Shaito (Garland, Texas).
Over 900 fencers are registered to compete at the Iowa NAC event with competition starting at 8:30 a.m. and concluding at 6 p.m. daily. Admission to the event is free and open to the public.
Katharine Holmes (Washington D.C.) silver medal winner from the 2009 Cadet World Championships, Ashley Severson (Franklin Lakes, N.J.) and Nik Nik Ameli (Las Vegas, Nev.) will fence for top honors in the Cadet Women's Epee category, while Sarah Pak (Roslyn, N.Y.), Alisha Gomez (Wayne, N.J.) and Desirae Major (Culver, Ind.) will vie for a title in the Cadet Women's Sabre category.
Alexander Eldeib (Burke, Va.), Luke Politi (Lexington, Mass.) and Maxwell Kleeman (Los Angeles) lead the Cadet Men's Epee division in Iowa this weekend. The Cadet Men's Foil competition will be contested with leading fencers Brian Kaneshige (Maplewood, N.J.), Nobuo Bravo (San Francisco) and Jerry Chang (Mountain View, Calif.). In Cadet Men's Sabre, Alexander Ryjik (Alexandria, Va.), Will Spear (Wynantskill, N.Y.) and Michael Josephs (Chevy Chase, Md.) will compete for the title.
The NAC tournaments are a series of sanctioned U.S. Fencing Association events providing fencers across the world the opportunity to compete in men's and women's Epee, Foil and Sabre to earn ranking points.
The next NAC event is set for Kansas City, Mo., scheduled for Nov. 6-9, is for Juniors (born in 1990-96), Cadets (born in 1993-96) and youth (born in 1995-98). Pittsburgh will host the North American Cup for elite athletes, veterans and wheelchair fencers, Dec. 4-6.
The 2010 North American Cup events will start with elite and junior athletes at the Jan. 15-18 North American Cup in San Jose, Calif. The fencing community will converge into Dallas for the March 26-29 NAC for division 2, division 3, veterans and wheelchair divisions. The final NAC is slated for April 23-26 in Virginia Beach, Va., for elite athletes and multiple youth divisions (born in 1995-2002).
NAC tournaments are open to foreign fencers who have an FIE license valid for the current season and/or can show proof of membership in another fencing federation, and who meet age/classification requirements for specific NAC competitions. U.S. Fencers must be current members of the U.S. Fencing Association, but do not need their membership number to register for National Events.
For more information and entry forms on North American Cup events click here.
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