USA Fencing

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – Fencing in his final Junior World Cup before he aging out at the end of the season, John Vaiani (Belmar, N.J.) won his first international medal at the Aix-En-Provence foil event in France on Saturday.

Vaiani finished the pool rounds with a 5-1 record and defeated 2013 Cadet World Team member Raymond Chen (Dallas, Texas), 15-8, in the table of 64.

Vaiani dominated his table of 32 bout against Maciej Podralski (POL) for a 15-2 win and defeated Thomas Lerche Berg (DEN), 15-10, in the table of 16.

After a 15-10 quarter-final win against Ciaran Veitenheimer (GER), Vaiani lost to top-ranked Francesco Ingargiola (ITA), 15-13, in the semifinals and finished with a bronze medal.

Three of Vaiani’s teammates advanced to the table of 16.

Samuel Moelis (Hewlett, N.Y.), the top-ranked cadet fencer in the nation, moved up to the No. 1 position in the junior rankings as well with his 11th place result.

Axel Kiefer (Lexington, Ky.), a 2014 Junior World team medalist, finished 12th and 2014 Cadet World medalist George Haglund (Califon, N.J.) finished 16th.

On Sunday, Chen and Moelis fenced in the team event with Nolen Scruggs (Ozone Park, N.Y.) and Drew Johnston (New York, N.Y.)

Team USA was seeded third in the tournament and earned a bye into the quarter-finals, but the Americans lost to Italy, 45-34.

Team USA won its next two matches to finish fifth overall with a 45-33 win against Denmark and a 45-40 victory over Russia.

Click here to view individual results.

Click here to view team results.

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

Aix-En-Provence Individual Foil World Cup
1. Francesco Ingargiola (ITA)
2. Enguerand Roger (FRA)
3. Toshiya Saito (JPN)
3. John Vaiani (Belmar, N.J.)
5. Dominik Shoppa (GER)
6. Yoshiki Abe (JPN)
7. Ciaran Veitenheimer (GER)
8. Alexander Pivovarov (RUS)

11. Samuel Moelis (Hewlett, N.Y.)
12. Axel Kiefer (Lexington, Ky.)
16. George Haglund (Califon, N.J.)
36. Matthew Branman (Villanova, Pa.)
44. Gregory Mitberg (Beaverton, Ore.)
51. Raymond Chen (Dallas, Texas)
65. Nolen Scruggs (Ozone Park, N.Y.)
71. Drew Johnston (New York, N.Y.)
75. Jarred Gou (Saratoga, Calif.)
78. Aiden Ahn (Los Angeles, Calif.)
117. William Upbin (Brooklyn, N.Y.)

Aix-En-Provence Team Foil World Cup
1. Poland
2. France
3. Japan
4. Italy
5. USA
6. Russia
7. Latvia
8. Denmark