USA Fencing

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – Following her most successful senior season in which Nzingha Prescod (Brooklyn, N.Y.) won both Grand Prix and National Championship titles, the 2012 Olympian won gold at the November North American Cup on Friday in Cleveland, Ohio.

Prescod, who begins the 2013-2014 season as the No. 1-ranked women’s foil fencer in the nation and No. 8 in the world, was the top seeded fencer in a field that included two of her London teammates as well as past Junior World medalists.

Prescod went 6-0 in the pools and entered the table of 128 in a three-way tie for the first seed with former Junior World team medalists Margaret Lu (Greenwich, Conn.) and Jacqueline Dubrovich (Riverdale, N.J.) – both of whom fence with Prescod at Columbia.

After a bye into the table of 64, Prescod defeated Abigail Kaye (Columbus, Ohio), 15-2, and Alina Antokhina (RUS), 15-5.

In the table of 16, Prescod won her bout over two-time Pan Am medalist Alanna Goldie (CAN), 15-13.

Prescod and her London teammate, Notre Dame sophomore Lee Kiefer (Lexington, Ky.), met in the quarter-finals. Although the two have been friendly rivals at both the junior and senior levels for most of their young careers, Kiefer came into the bout having won all of their previous match-ups since 2011 when Prescod won their gold medal final at the Junior Worlds.

This time, however, Prescod won the bout, 15-7, and ended Kiefer’s streak of finishing in the top three of every Division I NAC during the last three years.   

Prescod took her semifinal win by a 15-7 margin as well with a win over Canadian Shannon Comerford.

In a rematch of the gold medal final from the Division I National Championships in April, Prescod faced off against Nicole Ross (New York City, N.Y.) – Prescod’s teammate at both the London Olympic Games and at the Fencers Club where both athletes train.

Prescod took the win and her second domestic title of the year by a score of 15-11 over Ross who has now finished in the top eight at the last four national tournaments.

Junior World Team Champion Francesca Russo (Wayne, N.J.) finished third in both of her NAC appearances this year, but the former top-ranked junior women’s saber fencer in the country returned to the top of the podium on Friday.

Seeded 33^rd out of the pools, Russo won a close bout in the table of 64, 15-13, over Julia Abelsky (Atlanta, Ga.) and defeated her Bergen Fencing Club teammate, Alisha Gomez (Wayne, N.J.), 15-11, in the table of 32.

In the table of 16, Russo won her bout against Miranda Gieg (Sudbury, Mass.), 15-9, and went on to win the quarters over her fellow Junior World Team Champion, Skyla Powers (Decatur, Ga.), 15-11.

Russo won her semifinal against Violet Michel (Cambridge, Mass.), 15-9. Fifteen-year-old Michel took bronze – a career best for the former Y14 standout who began the tournament as the 43^rd seed and the went on to be the only B-rated fencer to advance to the quarter-finals in an event that included all four members of the team that won the 2013 Junior Worlds.

Princeton sophomore Gracie Stone (Chicago, Ill.) advanced to her second straight NAC final after defeating 2013 Junior Pan Am bronze medalist Emma Keehan (Chandler, Ariz.), 15-7, in the semifinals.

Russo won her bout against Stone, 15-9, to win her first domestic title since winning the 2012 Division I National Championships.

A 2013 Cadet World Team member, Gabriel Canaux (Brooklyn, N.Y.) won his first NAC title in the junior men’s epee event.

Seeded 15^th at the start of the tournament, Canaux dropped two bouts in the pools and fell to a 56^th seed in the table of 256.

Canaux still earned a bye into the table of 128 where he defeated Jonathan Xu (Prospect, Ky.), 15-10.

Canaux escaped the table of 64 by just a touch with a 15-14 victory over 2013 Junior World Team member Conor Shepard (Colleyville, Texas).

In the table of 32, he won an easier bout over Canadian Dylan French, 15-8, to advance to the table of 16 where he edged Noah Adamitis (Kirkville, Texas), 14-13.

Canaux won his quarter-final bout against Notre Dame sophomore Garrett McGrath (Flagstaff, Ariz.), 15-13, to advance to his first NAC semifinal bout.

Canaux’s semifinal came down to the last touch, but he held on to defeat Inaki De Guzman (Fairfax, Va.), 15-14.

Alex House (Upton, Mass.), a 2013 Junior World team member and Princeton freshman, won his semifinal bout over 2013 Cadet World Champion Ariel Simmons (Bellaire, Texas), 15-11, to advance to the gold medal final.

Canaux controlled the gold medal final to take the win over House, 15-7.

In the women’s team epee event, 2013 Cadet World Team member Amanda Sirico (Bowie, Md.) anchored the DC Fencers Club to a gold medal win.

Sirico and her younger sister, Brooke Sirico (Bowie, Md.), and teammates Rebecca Chimahusky (Wheaton, Md.) and 2012 Veteran World medalist Valerie Asher (Bethesda, Md.), began the event as the top seeded team and won the quarter-finals, 45-29, over Two Ravens Valkyries.

DC Fencers Club won seven of nine bouts against Synergy in the next match, to win the semifinals, 45-32.

In the gold medal final, the DC Fencers gave up just two bouts against BFC Team Blue and won the match, 45-32.

BFC Team Blue’s silver medal fencers included Stephanie Wolf (Newton, Mass.), Madeleine Killough (Belmont, Mass.) and Shawn Wallace (Greenwich, Conn.)

In the bronze medal final, Synergy held a 12-10 lead after the first three bouts, but the Salle Auriol squad of Julee Floyd (Seattle, Wash.), Kundry Haberkern (Seattle, Wash.) and Susan Fredendall (Seattle, Wash.) took the next six straight bouts to win the match, 45-32.

Although the Los Angeles International Fencing Center’s lineup only included three fencers, Spicer Emge (Los Angeles, Calif.), Igor Zapozdaev (Los Angeles, Calif.) and Jacob Lind (Porter Ranch, Calif.) won three straight matches to take gold in the senior men’s team foil competition.

Anchored by Zapozdaev, LAIFC defeated the Boston Fencing Club, 45-26, in the quarter-finals and Renaissance Men, 45-38, in the semis.

In the gold medal final, San Francisco Fencers Club held a 40-29 lead after the first eight bouts, but Zapozdaev scored 16 touches in three minutes against Hugo Brousse (San Francisco, Calif.) to give LAIFC the win, 45-42.

The silver-medal winning SFFC team also included Paul Wat (Hillsborough, Calif.), David Hadler (San Francisco, Calif.) and Keith Kan (Milbrae, Calif.)

In the bronze medal final, the Renaissance Men’s team of Anthony Kosla (Northville, Mich.), Michael Purdy-Sachs (Port Huron, Mich.), Anatolie Senic (Royal Oak, Mich.) and James Hu (West Bloomfield, Mich.) defeated Ottawa Fencing, 45-40.  

Click here to view complete results.

Top eight results are as follows:

Division I Women’s Individual Foil
1. Nzingha Prescod (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
2. Nicole Ross (New York City, N.Y.)
3. Shannon Comerford (CAN)
3. Eleanor Harvey (CAN)
5. Margaret Lu (Greenwich, Conn.)
6. Lee Kiefer (Lexington, Ky.)
7. Madison Zeiss (Notre Dame, Ind.)
8. Ann Marsh-Senic (Royal Oak, Mich.)

Junior Men’s Individual Epee
1. Gabriel Canaux (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
2. Alex House (Upton, Mass.)
3. Ariel Simmons (Bellaire, Texas)
3. Inaki De Guzman (Fairfax, Va.)
5. Matthew McGrath (Maricopa, Ariz.)
6. Anton Piskovatskov (Houston, Texas)
7. Joshua Cole (Chappaqua, N.Y.)
8. Martin Ridge (Little Neck, N.Y.)

Junior Women’s Individual Saber
1. Francesca Russo (Wayne, N.J.)
2. Gracie Stone (Chicago, Ill.)
3. Violet Michel (Cambridge, Mass.)
3. Emma Keehan (Chandler, Ariz.)
5. Sarah Merza (Wayne, N.J.)
6. Danya Hu (Laguna Niguel, Calif.)
7. Skyla Powers (Decatur, Ga.)
8. Marta Lasota (Silver Spring, Md.)

Senior Women’s Team Epee
1. DC Fencers Club
2. BFC Team Blue
3. Salle Auriol Seattle
4. Synergy
5. BFC Team Black
6. An Unkindness
7. STH Quebec
8. Two Ravens Valkyries

Senior Men’s Team Foil
1. Los Angeles International Fencing Center
2. San Francisco Fencers Club
3. Renaissance Men
4. Ottawa Fencing
5. Royal Arts
6. Boston Fencing Club
7. Lourus Fencing Club
8. G.W.D.G.N.