USA Fencing

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – At the conclusion of the Buenos Aires World Cup, four athletes qualified for the U.S. Men’s Epee Team that will compete at the Senior World Championships in August and the Pan American Championships in June.

The Buenos Aires World Cup served as the final qualifying event for team selection – a process that began at the London Olympic Games and has included four domestic and nine international tournaments.

Going into the tournament, two-time Olympian Soren Thompson (New York City, N.Y.) had already secured his position on the team as he couldn’t be passed as the top-ranked fencer in the country, but his nine teammates in Buenos Aires all remained in contention for the remaining three berths on the team.

At the start of the tournament, two-time reigning National Champion Alexander Tsinis (Little Neck, N.Y.), 2012 Pan Am Team member Jason Pryor (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and two-time Junior World Team member Adam Watson (Richford, Vt.) held the second, third and fourth positions in the rankings, respectively.

Pryor went 5-1 in the pools on Friday and advanced directly to the table of 64 as the 32^nd seed.

Two-time Junior World Team member Jonathan Yergler (Princeton, N.J.) also finished 5-1 and entered the table of 64 as the 29^th seed.

Watson qualified for the table of 64 after a 4-2 pool result and a 15-9 victory over Wolfgang Mejias (VEN).

Tsinis split his pool bouts, 3-3, and won his preliminary table of 128 bout against Guilherme Melaragno (BRA), 15-9. Tsinis lost his next bout to Yuval Shalom Freilich (ISR) and would have to watch his teammates fence on Saturday to see if he would retain a top-four ranking.

Eighteen-year-old Samuel Freiman (Woodlands, Texas) won four of six pool bouts and earned a bye into the preliminary table of 64 where he defeated Hugues Boisvert-Simard (CAN), 15-14.

The win allowed Freiman to advance to the second day in his third appearance on the senior international circuit.

Freiman would need at least a silver medal finish to break into the top four and he began competition on Saturday with a table of 64 bout against Thompson – a 2012 World Team Champion and the 11^th seed in the tournament.

Freiman upset Thompson, 15-14, but finished 31^st after a 15-14 loss to Alexey Tikhomriov (RUS).

While Freiman would climb 20 positions in the national team standings, his #23 ranking would not qualify him for Senior Worlds.

Ranked sixth in the nation at the start of the event, Yergler was within striking distance of qualifying for his first Senior World Team, but the 2012 NCAA Champion lost his table of 64 bout to Dmitriy Karuchenko (UKR), 15-11.

The losses by Freiman and Yergler meant that Tsinis, Watson and Pryor would retain their rankings and each would qualify for the Senior World Team for the first time.

The complete Senior World Team, including athletes from each of the six weapon squads, will be announced in full this week.

Watson was eliminated in the table of 64 after a 15-13 loss to Radoslaw Zawrotniak (POL).

Pryor lost to Sergey Khodos (RUS), 15-13.

Click here to view complete results.

Top eight and U.S. results are as follows, including athletes who placed outside the top 64 on Friday:

Buenos Aires Individual Epee World Cup
1. Ruben Limardo Gascon (VEN)
2. Jiri Beran (CZE)
3. Norman Ackermann (GER)
3. Radoslaw Zawrotniak (POL)
5. Max Heinzer (SUI)
6. Alexey Tikhomirov (RUS)
7. Diego Confalonieri (ITA)
8. Jack Hudson (GBR)

31. Samuel Freiman (Woodlands, Texas)
34. Soren Thompson (New York City, N.Y.)
46. Jonathan Yergler (Princeton, N.J.)
47. Jason Pryor (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
53. Adam Watson (Richford, Vt.)
72. Narayan Pathi (Las Vegas, Nev.)
81. Alexander Tsinis (Little Neck, N.Y.)
109. Nicholas Vomero (Centerport, N.Y.)
111. Scott Rostal (St. Paul, Minn.)
124. Adam Maczik (Waltham, Mass.)