USA Fencing

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – Spencer Amann (Westminster, Colo.) and Ariel Simmons (Bellaire, Texas) each placed in the top 16 at the Udine Junior Epee World Cup in Italy on Friday.

Amann, a 2012 Cadet World Team member, defeated Gautier Hamoline (BEL), 15-11, in the table of 128 and won his bout in the table of 64 against teammate Alex House (Upton, Mass.), 15-13.

Amann won his table of 32 bout against Yevgeniy Karyuchenko (UKR), 15-14, but finished 13^th after a 15-14 loss to Leonard Stalder (SUI).

Competing in his first Junior World Cup, 16-year-old Ariel Simmons (Bellaire, Texas) finished 16^th.

Simmons, who placed sixth at his last international event – the Chalons Cadet European Cup – barely made the cut into the direct elimination tables after a 2-3 result in the pools left him with a 92^nd seed.

Despite his low seed, Simmons progressively picked off his opponents, defeating Gianluca Casaro (ITA), 15-13, and Ondrej Novotny (CZE), 15-11, in the tables of 128 and 64, respectively.

Simmons trounced his next opponent, Paul Sanchez-Lethem (GBR) by a score of 15-6 to advance to the table of 16.

In the next bout, however, Simmons fell to Gianmarco Andreana (ITA), 15-13.

Click here to view complete results.

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

Men’s Udine Junior Epee World Cup
1. Sergey Bida (RUS)
2. Marco Fichera (ITA)
3. Daniel Berta (HUN)
3. Gabriele Cimini (ITA)
5. Leonard Stalder (SUI)
6. Gergo Kiss (HUN)
7. Gianmarco Andreana (ITA)
8. Lorenzo Buzzi (ITA)

13. Spencer Amann (Westminster, Colo.)
16. Ariel Simmons (Bellaire, Texas)
32. Gabriel Canaux (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
41. Alex House (Upton, Mass.)
43. Justin Wan (North Hills, N.Y.)
61. Ayyub Ibrahim (Bronx, N.Y.)
64. Lewis Weiss (Houston, Texas)
66. Joseph Guinan (River Forest, Ill.)
68. Nicholas Hanahan (Indianapolis, Ind.)
76. John Cramerus (Sugar Land, Texas)
119. Adam Frank (Portland, Ore.)
124. Samuel Freiman (Woodlands, Texas)