USA Fencing

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – Team USA began arriving in San Jose, Costa Rica on Friday in preparation for the Pan American Championships which will begin on Sunday and conclude on June 6. 

The six-day tournament will serve as the final international competition for Team USA before the Senior World Championships which will be held July 15-23 in Kazan, Russia.

Among the 24 U.S. athletes who will fence in the individual competition, eight have won individual gold medals at past Pan Am Championships.

Two-time Olympic Champion Mariel Zagunis (Beaverton, Ore.) has been undefeated at the last five Pan American Championships and will be aiming for an unprecedented sixth straight women’s saber title.

Lee Kiefer (Lexington, Ky.) won her first Pan Am women’s foil title as a 16 year old in 2010 and has won gold at this event every year since.

Kiefer’s teammate at the London Olympic Games, Nzingha Precod (Brooklyn, N.Y.), won the Pan Ams in her first year on the Senior National team as a 16 year old in 2009. Prescod fenced Kiefer for gold in 2013 with Kiefer taking the win, 15-14.

In the men’s foil competition, London Olympian Race Imboden (Brooklyn, N.Y.) won Pan Am gold in 2011 as an 18-year-old and defended his title in 2012. Last year, Imboden advanced to the finals again, but lost to two-time Olympian Gerek Meinhardt (San Francisco, Calif.) The win was the second individual Pan Am title for Meinhardt who won this event as a 17-year-old in 2007.

Women’s epee fencers Courtney and Kelley Hurley (San Antonio, Texas) won bronze together in the team event at the London Games and have amassed three individual titles between them. Courtney won gold in both 2009 and 2013 and Kelley took the title with a win over her sister in the finals in 2011.

Held in Reno, Nev., the 2011 Pan Ams was the site of an unprecedented U.S. sweep of all 12 titles with golds in individual and team of all six weapons. That year was also the last time a U.S. men’s saber fencer won individual gold at the Pan Ams. Fencing in the pre-Olympic year, Daryl Homer (Bronx, N.Y.) won his first individual title after taking gold in the team competition in 2010.

The competition schedule is as follows:

Sunday, June 1
Women’s Individual Epee
Men’s Individual Foil

Monday, June 2
Men’s Individual Epee
Women’s Individual Saber

Tuesday, June 3
Women’s Individual Foil
Men’s Individual Saber

Wednesday, June 4
Women’s Team Epee
Men’s Team Foil

Thursday, June 5
Men’s Team Epee
Women’s Team Saber

Friday, June 6
Women’s Team Foil
Men’s Team Saber

Team USA’s athlete roster for the individual events is as follows with team lineups to be announced prior to the start of each team competition:

Men’s Individual Epee
Andras Horanyi (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
Jason Pryor (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
Adam Watson (Richford, Vt.)
Jonathan Yergler (Long Island City, N.Y.)

Women’s Individual Epee
Katharine Holmes (Washington, D.C.)
Courtney Hurley (San Antonio, Texas)
Kelley Hurley (San Antonio, Texas)
Anna Van Brummen (Houston, Texas)

Men’s Individual Foil
Miles Chamley-Watson (New York City, N.Y.)
Race Imboden (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
Alexander Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.)
Gerek Meinhardt (San Francisco, Calif.)

Women’s Individual Foil
Lee Kiefer (Lexington, Ky.)
Margaret Lu (Greenwich, Conn.)
Nzingha Prescod (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
Nicole Ross (New York City, N.Y.)

Men’s Individual Saber
Eli Dershwitz (Sherborn, Mass.)
Daryl Homer (Bronx, N.Y.)
Andrew Mackiewicz (Westwood, Mass.)
Jeff Spear (Wynantskill, N.Y.)

Women’s Individual Saber
Ibtihaj Muhammad (Maplewood, N.J.)
Eliza Stone (Chicago, Ill.)
Dagmara Wozniak (Avenel, N.J.)
Mariel Zagunis (Beaverton, Ore.)

Visit http://esgrimacostarica.net/panamericano2014/programa.html for full results throughout the week.