Seven UNB Fencers Compete at Boston ROC

March 17-19, 2017

Seven UNB fencers took part in the Bill Hall ROC held in Boston between March 17^th and 19^th, taking home one gold and two top-eight medals.

UNB’s Wendy Yano (top row, second from left), at the top of the podium in Friday’s Veteran Women’s Sabre Event.

In Women’s Sabre, Wendy Yano fenced the Veteran and Division (Div) 1A categories, claiming Gold in Veteran and 8^th place in the Div 1A event. In the Veteran event, Wendy dominated, going undefeated in both the preliminary and elimination rounds. She faced a stiff challenge in her final, however, coming out with the win in a tight 10-9 victory over Connecticut fencer, Jennette Starks-Faulkner. In the Div 1A event, Wendy put on a strong performance in the preliminary round, winning all but one of her matches. In the elimination round, Wendy advanced to the Quarter-Finals with a pair of strong 15-9 and 15-10 victories but would eventually fall to first seed, Jessica Morales of Columbia.

In Men’s Sabre, Raphaël Bradley finished with seventh in Div 2 and 13^th in Div 1A, while teammate Cameron Haigh finished with 13^th in Div 2 and 15^th in Div 1A.

In the Div 2 event, Raphaël and Cameron finished the preliminary round with 3-2 and 3-3 records, respectively. In the elimination round, Raphaël advanced to the Quarter-Finals after 15-6 and 15-13 victories but fell to the eventual gold medalist, Kyle Berney, from Brandeis University. Cameron won his first elimination bout in dominant fashion going 15-6 before falling to the second seed, Jahi Tracy, in the round of 16.

Left: Sunday’s Div 1A Women’s Sabre Podium                       Right: Saturday’s Div 2 Men’s Sabre Podium.

In Men’s Epee, club Epee coach, David Themens, finished 17^th in Div 2 and 28^th in Div 1A. Patrick Bradley, who coaches at Fredericton’s Damocles Fencing Club, finished 9^th in Veterans, 18^th in Div 2, and 39^th in Div 1A. Calum Skidmore, who trains at both UNB and Damocles, finished 12^th in Div 2 and 21^st in Div 1A. First year, Joshua Dacanay, finished in 76^th in Div 1A.

In the Div 2 event, the UNB fencers dominated their competition in the preliminary round with David finishing with the 4^th seed, Patrick the 7^th seed, and Calum the 15^th. In the elimination round, Calum advanced to the round of 16 with a strong 15-7 win but fell to Bay State fencer, and eventual bronze medalist, Javier Garcia-Albea. Both Patrick and David struggled early in the elimination round suffering 13-12 and 15-14 upsets to their respective opponents.

In the Div 1A event, the UNB fencers put on respectable prelim performances with Patrick, Calum, David, and Josh finishing the preliminary rounds with the 21^st, 26^th, 46^th, and 75^th seeds, respectively. In the elimination rounds, both David and Calum advanced to the round of 32, while Patrick suffered an upset in the round of 64 to New York fencer, Benjamin Rogak, and Joshua lost to Brandeis University’s Jake Tyler. In the round of 32, Calum would fence the US East Coast’s #4, Udaypaul Chilana, falling to the Boston College Freshman 15-10. David would fence 1996 Bulgarian Olympian, Iliya Mechkov, losing 15-9.

In the Veteran event, Patrick put on another dominating preliminary round performance, finishing with the 3^rd seed. His elimination round struggles continued, however, as he was upset by New England fencer Michael Byrne, 10-7 in the round of 16.

In Men’s Foil, Joshua Dacanay finished in 81^st

PRESS RELEASE

Five medals for NB fencers at Canada Cup East

Two gold and three bronze medals were captured by three fencers from the UNB Fencing Club at the first national circuit event of the season – Canada Cup East - held in Montreal on the Oct. 22-23 weekend. New Brunswick was represented by seventeen competitors.

Ecole Ste. Anne student, Raphael Bradley took bronze in both cadet (under 17) and junior (under 20) men's sabre to establish a strong start to the competition season. He also finished 12^th in senior men's sabre. Next weekend, Bradley, a member of the National Team Sabre Program will travel to London England with Team Canada and coach, Jim Stevens to compete in a European Circuit competition. Raphaël currently sits in third place in the Cadet Men's Sabre High Performance Rankings and is pushing to qualify for the 2017 Cadet World Championships in Bulgaria.

Fredericton High student, Jenny Zhu, earned gold in under 15 women's epee. Ranked 2nd after the preliminary round, Jenny defeated her first opponent 15-3 in the elimination round but suffered an ankle injury in her semi final bout. Despite the injury, Jenny finished the semi-final match 15-8 and took gold with another 15-8 performance over Laura Mykhalchenko from Ontario. Jenny took a bronze medal in junior women's foil after defeating fellow Fredericton fencer, Willow Wilson, in the quarter finals and losing to eventual gold medallist, Ariane Léonard of Montreal.

Wendy Yano captured gold in Veteran's mixed Sabre and placed 12 in senior women's sabre.

Other UNB results were:

The Damocles Fencing Club of Fredericton fielded a team of 9 fencers with the following results:

Two fencers from the Fundy Fencing Club in Saint John competed with the following results:

UNB Fencing Club’s Jenny Zhu takes Bronze in Montreal

In Men’s Epee, club coach David Themens, achieved the club’s best result with a 17^th place finish. Patrick Bradley, Mitchell Clark, and Garreth McGrath finished strong with 27^th, 28^th, and 29^th place finishes, respectively.

The UNB club’s Sabreists, Raphaël Bradley and Cameron Haigh, were also in action this weekend competing in the Junior and Senior Sabre categories. This was the first opportunity for NB fencers to fence under the new and radically changed sabre rules. After strong performances, both fencers would fall just shy of medalling in the Junior event with 5^th and 6^th place finishes, respectively. They would also finish 7^th and 8^th, respectively, in the senior category.

David Themens: 12^th in Senior Mixed Epee

Garreth McGrath: 15^th in Senior Mixed Epee

Mitchell Clark: 17^th in Senior Mixed Epee

Congratulations to all those that participated in these tournaments!

            Born in 1933 in the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia, Nazi Germany took control of his homeland in 1938. He lived through the Second World War as a child, losing his father just after the war to a Gulag in Siberia, where he died. Alfred, and the rest of his family were loaded on cattle cars and sent to West Germany, where they set down roots. Alfred only joined a fencing club in 1950, one year after the Allies lifted the ban on fencing in Germany (as fencing swords were considered ‘weapons’ under Germany’s surrender terms). He quickly flourished in foil and sabre, being invited to numerous national competitions and winning many gold and silver medals between 1952 and 1954.

However, the German economy was still weak in the 1950s, so Alfred turned to Canada to begin a new life, arriving on May 11, 1955. He found work in the woods and worked hard learning English, then found a job in the metal industry, where he worked for 10 years. In 1966, he was hired as the Chief Technician in the Chemical Engineering Department at UNB. When he arrived, his past caught up with him when the UNB Fencing Club, a newly formed club in 1966, approached him to be their first coach. His acceptance of their invitation would lead to fencing as we know it today in New Brunswick.

Alfred did everything for Fencing in New Brunswick over the next ten years: coaching, refereeing, competition organization, equipment sales and repair, training of coaches and referees, and administration work for the New Brunswick Fencing Association (being President of the organization from 1969-72). He worked until he burned himself out, then returned to fencing at the club level before becoming the NBFA President again in 1981. He also worked at the national level, becoming a board member for the Canadian Fencing Association (now known as the Canadian Fencing Federation) from 1969-72, and helping to found the National Committee of Fencing Instructors in 1971.

Other UNB Results:

Raphaël Bradley: 8th in Junior Men's Sabre
Patrick Bradley: 35th in Senior Men's Epee
Wendy Yano: 14th in Senior Women's Sabre

UNB Fencers will now be preparing to close out the season with the New Brunswick Provincial Championships in Fredericton, May 7-8, and the National Championships in Longueuil, QC, May 21-23.

Congratulations to our UNB Fencers and good luck this weekend!