USA Fencing

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – U.S. men’s junior saber fencers hoping to fence at the Junior World Championships in April had a difficult choice to make this season. With one qualifying tournament left, they could either compete in the Junior Olympic Fencing Championships in Baltimore or the Budapest Junior World Cup in Hungary over the weekend.

With only four U.S. fencers mathematically eligible to earn the top-three ranking needed to earn a position on the Junior World Team, all four made the choice to fight for their positions in Budapest.

Ranked third in the world after two Junior World Cup medals this season and a silver at the 2012 Junior Worlds, Eli Dershwitz (Sherborn, Mass.) traveled to Budapest with the knowledge that his position was safe.

His three teammates in Budapest, however, were in a close race for the two remaining positions with 2012 Cadet World medalist Andrew Mackiewicz (Westwood, Mass.) entering the tournament second in the rankings followed by Columbia freshman Geoffrey Loss (Laguna Beach, Calif.), a 2011 Cadet World Team member, in third and Penn State freshman Kaito Streets (Redwood City, Calif.) in fourth.

Streets would need to finish at least a round ahead of his teammates to be able to move ahead of his teammates in the rankings.

As the third and 28^th seeds out of the pools, respectively, both Dershwitz and Streets earned byes into the table of 64.

Mackiewicz won his table of 128 bout against Mokhtar Wafaey (EGY), 15-10, and Loss defeated Tomasz Pytel (POL), 15-9.

All four athletes won their bouts in the table of 64.

Dershwitz and Loss both defeated Italians by 15-11 scores with Dershitz winning his bout over Marco Valcarenghi and Loss defeating Gherardo Caranti.

Mackiewicz also faced an Italian – Riccardo Arena – who he won his bout against by a 15-7 score.

Streets won his bout against Mikolaj Grzegorek (POL), 15-8.  

In the table of 32, Streets earned his second victory of the day with a 15-14 victory over 2011 Junior World medalist Maximilian Kindler (GER), but his teammates failed to advance to the next round.

Dershwitz placed 18^th after a 15-9 loss to Remi Senegas (FRA) who went on to win bronze.

Loss dropped his bout to Marco Lecci (ITA), 15-9, and finished 26^th.

Mackiewicz’s 15-11 loss to Alessandro Riccardi (ITA) left him in 28^th place.

The trio of losses meant that Streets would move up to #2 in the rankings. Mackiewicz held onto the #3 position on the team and Loss dropped to fourth in the rankings and the first alternate position on the team.

With his position on the Junior World Team secured, Streets fenced a close bout against Fabien Ballorca (FRA), but lost the bout, 15-14, and placed 14^th.

The Junior Men’s Saber World Team roster is as follows:

Junior Men’s Saber World Team
1. Eli Dershwitz (Sherborn, Mass.)
2. Kaito Streets (Redwood City, Calif.)
3. Andrew Mackiewicz (Westwood, Mass.)
ALT 1: Geoffrey Loss (Laguna Beach, Calif.)
ALT 2: Jonah Shainberg (Rye, N.Y.)
ALT 3: Michael Costin (Culver City, Calif.)

Click here to view complete results from the Budapest Junior Saber World Cup.

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

Budapest Men’s Saber Junior World Cup
1. Andras Szatmari (HUN)
2. Marton Bence Csaba (HUN)
3. Remi Senegas (FRA)
3. Oleksiy Statsenko (UKR)
5. Tom Seitz (FRA)
6. Fabien Ballorca (FRA)
7. Leonardo Dreossi (ITA)
8. Iacopo Rinaldi (ITA)

14. Kaito Streets (Redwood City, Calif.)
18. Eli Dershwitz (Sherborn, Mass.)
26. Geoffrey Loss (Laguna Beach, Calif.)
28. Andrew Mackiewicz (Westwood, Mass.)