USA Fencing

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – Sixteen-year-old Alex Walker (Atlanta, Ga.) won his first international medal on Saturday with a bronze at the Godollo Saber Cadet European Cup in Hungary.

Walker was one of four U.S. fencers to place in the top eight, alongside athletes from Italy, Russia and Poland.

Fencing in his first international season, the 2013 Junior Olympic silver medalist went 5-1 in each of the two sets of pool rounds and won his table of 128 bout against Florian Batsch (GER), 15-6.

Walker advanced to the table of 32 as one of nine U.S. athletes in the field after a 15-12 victory against Borys Melnik (UKR).

After a 15-6 win over Russian Oleg Pazyak, Walker defeated his teammate, Gavin Turner (Rehoboth, Mass.) by a 15-10 margin.

Although Walker lost his next round to Karol Lademann (POL) by two touches, 15-13, he came back in the repechage to defeat teammate Ben Natanzon (Manalapan, N.J.), 15-14.

The win allowed Walker to move on to the quarter-finals where he would join his teammates Karol Metryka (Linden, N.J.), Mikolaj Bak (Linden, N.J.) and Connor Ritchey (Wheat Ridge, Colo.) who each won six straight direct elimination bouts to advance to the top eight.

Walker won his bout against Bak, 15-8, to advance to the semifinals, but Metryka and Ritchey each lost their quarter-final rounds.

Metryka, who placed second in Konin last month, lost to eventual gold medalist Leonardo Dreossi (ITA), 15-13, and Ritchey, the 2012 Division III National Champion, was eliminated by Ivan Ilyin (RUS), 15-14.

Walker lost his semifinal bout to Mikhail Kishchenkov (RUS), 15-6, and finished the day with a bronze medal.

On the women’s side, a team competition was held with 32 squads from 15 nations.

Mary Barnett (Lake Oswego, Ore.), Lauren Kim (Plano, Texas), Zhesy Zhuang (Laguna Niguel, Calif.) and Marta Lasota (Silver Spring, Md.) opened with a 45-17 win over Italy and defeated Poland, 45-28, in the table of 16.

The Americans’ sole loss came against Russia who won their quarter-final match, 45-38. While the Russians went on to take gold, Team USA finished sixth.

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

Godollo Men’s Individual Saber European Cup
1. Leonardo Dreossi (ITA)
2. Mikhail Kishchenkov (RUS)
3. Ivan Ilyin (RUS)
3. Alex Walker (Atlanta, Ga.)
5. Karol Metryka (Linden, N.J.)
6. Mikolaj Bak (Linden, N.J.)
7. Karol Lademann (POL)
8. Connor Ritchey (Wheat Ridge, Colo.)

9. Ben Natanzon (Manalapan, N.J.)
16. Khalil Thompson (Teaneck, N.J.)
18. Gavin Turner (Rehoboth, Mass.)
19. Royce Wang (San Jose, Calif.)
20. Dawson Sieradzky (Wayne, N.J.)
37. Calvin Liang (Chandler, Ariz.)
38. Samuel Kwong (Los Altos Hills, Calif.)
41. Julian Merchant (New Rochelle, N.Y.)
49. Marcel Dolegiewicz (Park Ridge, Ill.)
56. Josef Cohen (Barrington, R.I.)
60. Jonah Buchwald (San Carlos, Calif.)
73. Duncan DeCaire (Sacramento, Calif.)
84. Connor Mills (Medford, N.J.)
116. Naveen Borojerdi (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)

Godollo Women’s Team Saber European Cup
1. Russia
2. Poland
3. Germany
4. Russia
5. Russia
6. USA
7. Romania
8. Hungary