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Team USA Sweeps Golds in Budapest

09/15/2015, 7:30pm CDT
By Nicole Jomantas

Team USA won gold in the mixed team event with Olympian Nicole Ross as the squad's coach. (Top Row L-R): Lucas Orts, Ross and Stefani Deschner. (Bottom Row L-R): Sylvie Binder and Michael Li. Photo Credit: Jeffrey Binder.

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – Team USA won six individual medals and claimed the mixed team gold at the Budapest Foil Cadet European Cup in Hungary over the weekend.

Fencing in just her second Cadet European Cup, 16-year-old Isabelle Elizondo (Cypress, Texas) led a U.S. sweep of the women’s podium with 16-year-old Sylvie Binder (Armonk, N.Y.) winning silver and 14-year-olds Delphine Devore (Westport, Conn.) and Emme Zhou (Lexington, Mass.) taking bronze.

All four athletes went 4-0 in the pools and earned byes into the table of 128.

Elizondo held her first three direct elimination opponents to single digits scores to advance to the table of 16 after a pair of 15-8 wins against Daniyela Tovtyn (UKR) and Cynthia Liu (CAN) as well as a 15-6 victory over teammate Marissa Viqueira (Maplewood, N.J.) in the 32.

In the table of 16, Elizondo edged 14-year-old teammate May Tieu (Belle Mead, N.J.), 12-11, to qualify for the quarters with Binder, Zhou and Devore as well as 15-year-old Natalie Minarik (Glen Oaks, N.Y.)

Elizondo defeated Rebeca Candescu (ROU), 14-9, to secure a medal and a berth in the semifinals where she would face Zhou who was coming off a 15-8 win over top seed Anna Tarenenko (UKR).

Binder, a 2015 Cadet World bronze medalist, won her quarter bout against Anna Zuin (ITA), 12-5, and would fence Devore in the semis after Devore defeated Minarik, 15-9.

Elizondo and Binder each controlled their semifinals as Elizondo won her bout against Zhou, 15-10, and Binder bested Devore, 15-9.

Elizondo claimed her first international gold medal after defeating Binder, 15-13, in the final bout to climb to No. 6 in the Cadet National Point Standings. Binder remains No. 1 in the national standings and moved from No. 8 to No. 4 in the Cadet European Standings. 

Just two days after his sixteenth birthday, Nick Itkin (Los Angeles, Calif.) won his first Cadet European Cup title in the men’s event and shot up to No. 1 in the Cadet European Standings. Sixteen-year-old Geoffrey Tourette (Cupertino, Calif.) would take the silver and earn the No. 2 position in the Cadet European Standings.

Itkin and Tourette each posted undefeated records as two of 10 U.S. fencers to achieve the feat out of the pool rounds.

Seeded fourth in the table of 256, Itkin earned a bye into the 128 where he defeated Yehia E Kafrawi (EGY), 15-5. After a 15-3 win against Ian Neilson (BUL), Itkin qualified for the table of 16 with a 15-13 win over Vladislav Mylnikov (RUS).

As the No. 2 and No. 4 seeds, Tourette and Itkin led a lineup of seven U.S. team members into the 16.

Tourette won his bout against Bogdan Barmakov (RUS), 15-10, while Itkin defeated 15-year-old teammate Andrew Machovec (East Rockaway, N.Y.), 15-13.

Both Itkin and Tourette would face teammates in the round of eight as well with Itkin defeating Cameron Allen (Newtown, Pa.), 15-12, and Tourette besting Michael Li (Palo Alto, Calif.), 15-4.

The Americans each faced Russian opponents in the semis where Itkin won his bout against Kirill Borodachev, 15-13, and Tourette defeated Danil Gainullin, 15-12.

In the final, Itkin came out on top with a 15-13 win over Tourette.

Although Itkin and Tourette and first and second in the Cadet European Standings, Tourette remains No. 1 in the U.S. Cadet National Point Standings as the 2015 Cadet World bronze medalist and Junior Olympic Champion. Li, who finished fifth, sits in third in both the U.S. and Cadet European Standings.

Binder and Li fenced in the mixed team event on Sunday with two-time Cadet World Team member Stefani Deschner (Mechanicsville, Va.) and Lucas Orts (Burlingame, Calif.)

After a bye into the table of 16, Team USA shut out Turos for four of the eight bouts with Binder anchoring the team to a 40-12 victory.

In the quarter-finals, Team USA took on a mixed team with athletes from Russia, Serbia and Latvia. Team USA dropped just one bout and went on to take the match, 40-23.

The Americans dominated the semifinals as well, winning seven of eight bouts to defeat Ukraine 1, 40-23.

The gold medal match would prove to be a challenging one for both Team USA and Russia 1 with the Russians winning four bouts to hold a one-touch lead at 34-33 going into Binder’s anchor bout against Anastasia Karpacheva. Binder took the bout by a 7-3 score and the gold medal with a 40-37 win.

Click here to view complete results.

Budapest Women’s Foil Cadet European Cup
1. Isabelle Elizondo (Cypress, Texas)
2. Sylvie Binder (Armonk, N.Y.)
3. Delphine Devore (Westport, Conn.)
3. Emme Zhou (Lexington, Mass.)

5. Anna Taranenko (UKR)
6. Natalie Minarik (Glen Oaks, N.Y.)
7. Rebeca Candescu (ROU)
8. Anna Zuin (ITA)

9. Stefani Deschner (Mechanicsville, Va.)
10. Justine Banbury (East Grand Rapids, Mich.)
11. May Tieu (Belle Mead, N.J.)
13. Polly Adler (Scarsdale, N.Y.)
16. Melissa Du (Short Hills, N.J.)
17. Shiaoching Tse (Apex, N.C.)
20. Madeline Liao (Fresno, Calif.)
25. Marissa Viqueira (Maplewood, N.J.)
30. Alyssa Chen (San Diego, Calif.)
32. Samantha Matz (Carollton, Texas)
39. Rachel Zhang (Winchester, Mass.)

Budapest Men’s Foil Cadet European Cup
1. Nick Itkin (Los Angeles, Calif.)
2. Geoffrey Tourette (Cupertino, Calif.)

3. Kirill Borodachev (RUS)
3. Danil Gainullin (RUS)
5. Michael Li (Palo Alto, Calif.)
6. Ivan Troshin (RUS)
7. Cameron Allen (Newtown, Pa.)
8. Nikita Sporyshev (RUS)

9. Julian Cheng (Lexington, Mass.)
10. Robert Wong (Chappaqua, N.Y.)
12. Andrew Machovec (East Rockaway, N.Y.)
17. Earnest Chen (Weston, Conn.)
20. William Wise (Lake Oswego, Ore.)
23. Leo Zaroff (San Francisco, Calif.)
24. Joseph Marino (Rockville Centre, N.Y.)
34. Lucas Orts (Burlingame, Calif.)
38. Cameron Levy (Bellmore, N.Y.)
47. Kenji Bravo (San Francisco, Calif.)
48. Jared Dans (Merrick, N.Y.)
50. Jared Sugarman (Scarsdale, N.Y.)
56. Justin Ling-Yi Zhou (Louisville, Ky.)
69. Aidan Chu (San Francisco, Calif.)
84. Andrew Zheng (Jericho, N.Y.)
116. Evan Lau (San Francisco, Calif.)

Budapest Mixed Team Foil Cadet European Cup
1. USA

2. Russia 1
3. Hungary 1
4. Ukraine 1
5. Poland 1
6. Mixed Team
7. Romania 1
8. Singapore 

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