Jan
15
Over the weekend eight Ball State Fencing Club members braved the snowy roads and cold winds to compete in the first tournament of 2012; the Fort Wayne D & Under. Members included Tyler Wolford, Dave Izzo, Liz Haywood, Bill Stark, Ayed Adeed, Doug Shannon, Eric Ballenger, and coach Brian Koby. The club saw some amazing fencing as four member brought home five medals in the three events of the day.
The very long day began early in the morning with sabre. Since only five people showed up, Koby dropped from opting to referee the event to bump the competition to six fencers, qualifying it to become an E1 event (and giving Ball State a total of four fencers along with Eric, Ayed, Dave). Koby led the BSU team with 4 victories in the pools, while Dave followed close behind with 3, followed by Ayed with1 and Eric with two very close matches but no wins. Starting in the DE’s, Koby seeded 2nd while Dave, Ayed and Eric followed behind him in 3rd, 5th, and 6th (respectively). The first DE match was between Dave and Eric, which quickly became a heated match as the two went back and forth keeping the score close. Eventually Dave came out on top with a 15-13 win, placing him in the semi-finals round against Koby. Ayed faced off against Purdue fencer Lara Schmidt where he struggled a little and fell with a 8-15 loss. In the semi-finals round, Koby and Dave started out close, but Koby finally managed to gain the lead and continued to hold it through his 15-8 win over Dave. In the sabre finals, Koby faced Summit City coach and former BSU fencer Steve Koehneke where he final met his match with a 7-15 loss.
In epee, only two BSU fencers competed; Doug and Tyler. Tyler took the lead with a total of 5 wins while Doug was right behind him with 4, seeding them 2nd and 3rd in the DE brackets. Doug was first to fence in the epee DE’s, going up against Purdue fencer Stephen Backus. He knew exactly what he was doing and kept things simple as he took a 15-3 win and advancing to the semi-final round. Tyler faced off against Summit City member Katie Zellner and did what does best as he took a 15-3 victory to move in to the semi-finals round to face off against Doug. Tyler once again proved his fencing prowess as he won 15-8 over Doug to move on to the finals round where he faced Steve Koehneke. After losing to Steve in the pools, Tyler was determined to come out on top. After a very close bout that kept the scores side by side, Tyler finally took Steve to the end of the third period where he finished out on top with a 12-11 victory, securing a first place finish for Ball State.
Foil was the longest and largest event of the day with a total of 22 fencers (only 3 shy of making the event a possible C2). Koby and Liz were the only two representing Ball State in the event while club president Bill Stark helped referee the mass of fencers. In the pools, Liz fell behind with no wins but was not completely shut out. Koby was on fire as he took away 3 out of 5 victories. At the start of the DE’s Koby was seeded 9th while Liz was in 22nd, where she faced off against Johnathan Lykins, from Ohio. Liz’s day ended when she was knocked out in a 2-15 loss against Johnathan, but took home some much appreciated advice from fellow fencers who watched her bout. Koby started his uphill battle against Ohio fencer Barbara Wheeler in the Round of 16. He took a steady 15-7 win to move in to the Round of 8 where he faced his friend Mark Brandyberry. Through some impressive fencing on both sides, the score stayed relatively close all the way to the end where Koby was finally able to pull ahead and gain a 15-12 victory. He moved on to the semi-finals round where he faced another impressive match against River City fencer Peter Gray. Peter proved too much for the Ball State coach as Koby fell with a 12-15 loss.
SABRE RESULTS
Brian Koby – 2nd Place*
Dave Izzo – 3rd Place*
Ayed Adeed – 5th Place
Eric Ballenger – 6th PlaceEPEE RESULTS
Tyler Wolford – 1st Place* (renewing his E12)
Doug Shannon – 3rd Place*FOIL RESULTS
Brian Koby – 3rd Place* (renewing his E12)
Liz Haywood – 22nd Place* = Took home a medal – 5 in total for BSU, the most the club has ever taken home from one tournament
Special thanks goes to the friends at Summit City Fencing Club for their efforts in running a fantastic tournament, Bill Stark for refereeing every event that day, Maggie Cude for taking photos and video of the events, and all the fencers that made this event so much fun for all the BSU fencers!
