he Intercollegiate Fencing Conference of Southern California wrapped up its 2010 season on Saturday with a meet at UC Irvine. Among the top finishers were UC Santa Barbara's Women's Foil and Men's Saber squads, both finishing second in the conference.Both squads boasted records of 9-3.  During the season, the Womens Foil team lost only to UCI and top-ranked UC San Diego.  The Mens Saber squad lost once to UCLA and twice to UCSD."UC San Diego has a strong program with considerable … [Read more...]

The UCSB Fencing team hosted competing schools ASU, UCLA, and USC two weeks ago as part of the Intercollegiate Fencing Conference of Southern California.  Two squads, Men's Saber and Women's Foil, swept their opponents, going undefeated the entire meet. Both teams, captained by Nick Holmes and Stephanie Murphy, are now in second place in the conference, behind NCAA powerhouse UC San Diego.UCSB's Women's Saber squad narrowly lost to Arizona State but defeated UCLA and USC.  Women's Epee … [Read more...]

The Conejo Fencing Club of Thousand Oaks hosted a Toys for Tots Charity Tournament last Saturday. Gage Delany of Santa Barbara-based Presidio Fencing Club re-earned his C rating by taking home the gold medal in the Division II Foil Event. Delany squared off against Ventura foilist Michael Tiffany in the final bout, winning 15-13.Other Presidio fencers at the event were Timothy Stanton (12th), Matt Kuiken (14th), Doug Golupski (16th), Parker Olson (19th), and Mark Delany (22nd). Stanton also … [Read more...]

The Southern California Division of the US Fencing Association held its Junior Olympic Qualifiers last weekend in Santa Clarita.  Eight fencers from Santa Barbara's Presidio Fencing Club attended, including Lydia Kaestner of Dos Pueblos High School/Santa Barbara City College, who finished 2nd in the Junior Womens Epee.Kaestner, along with teammates Keric Moore, Paul Wintz, and Jake Weiner, earned a spot in the Junior Olympics to be held in Memphis, TN in February.Moore, a senior at San … [Read more...]

Presidio Fencing Club opened the Scholastic League with a big win in Saturday's Middle School foil competition. After going undefeated all day, Timothy "Timo" Stanton took home the gold in the men's event at Chaminade High School in West Hills.Teammates Sophie Russo and Amanda Chung went undefeated in the pool round of the women's event, with Russo ultimately earning the silver medal and Chung finishing fifth.In the High School division, Presidio's Keric Moore took sixth place in … [Read more...]

A group of 28 fencers from Central and Southern California competed in the Presidio Fencing Club's first tournament of the season on Sunday. Long-time Santa Barbara resident Jeff VanHousen took the silver spot, losing in the final bout to Andrew LeBeau of the San Luis Highlanders.Semi-finalists, and tying for the bronze, were Presidio's Tom Pingel and T.J. Jan.  The remaining 24 athletes hailed from Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Los Angeles counties.The tournament was the first to … [Read more...]

Cameron Westbury of Presidio Fencing Club is now a National Champion, having won the Division II Mens Foil Event at the 2009 Fencing National Championships held last week in Grapevine, TX.Westbury earned a berth to the event by first winning the Southern California National Qualifiers back in March.  In Texas, he competed in a field of over 150 other qualifiers from around the country.  He decidedly won the championship bout 15-10.Westbury is a 2009 graduate of Laguna Blanca and will … [Read more...]

On Saturday, members of the Presidio Fencing Club (www.presidiofencing.com) traveled north for the San Luis Obispo Memorial Day Open at Cal Poly. In the Mixed Foil event, Cameron Westbury took home the gold, scoring the winning point against teammate Keric Moore (second place).  Gage Delany also reached the final rounds, finishing fifth.Other Presidio foilists included Parker Olson (11), Rohun Heesen (13), Matt Kuiken (15), Jeff Campbell (17), Ryan Campbell (23), and Doug Golupsky … [Read more...]

Athletes from the Presidio Fencing Club (www.presidiofencing.com) attended three separate tournaments this past weekend.Six competed in Pasadena at the second of three Southern California Division qualifiers to Summer National Championships. In the Under 16 Mens Foil event, Timothy Stanton won the bronze medal while Jeff and Ryan Campbell finished 13th and 14th respectively. T.J. Jan won the bronze medal in the Under 16 Mens Epee event, and Christiana Lyman finished in 7th place in the … [Read more...]

Four fencers from Presidio Fencing Club (www.presidiofencing.com) competed in the Paul Pesthy Memorial Super Youth Tournament in San Jose last weekend. It was a very difficult tournament, drawing some of the top youth athletes from around the country.Sophie Russo, who is currently ranked 25th nationally in her age group, triumphed with the bronze medal in the Youth 12 Womens Foil event. She lost in the semi-finals to the 3rd ranked fencer. Russo is a student at Crane Elementary. … [Read more...]