By William Cracraft

This article first published in Harker News Online on Jan. 31, 2019

Update: Nerine Uyanik, grade 11, finished 32 in the Challenge CEP Marathon Flueret in Paris out of 150 fencers from around the world in under-17 competition! http://marathon-fleuret.com/resultats_2019.html

Also: Kira Bardin, grade 5, has been training in epee for about the past year and plans to begin competing soon.

Jan. 31, 2019
Harker has a strong contingent of fencers who compete regularly, along with alumna Jerrica Liao ’18, now fencing for Northwestern. Harker fencers, who train at various clubs around the Bay Area, recently competed in multiple local, regional and national events. Virtually all are on track to qualify for the national championships in June. Here are some of the results!

Liao, in her first year at Northwestern, is competing in individual women’s foil events as the college team has some strong starters returning from last year. Liao competed in Division 1 in the December North American Circuit (NAC) event in Cincinnati and in Junior Women’s foil in the NAC in Charlotte in January where she finished 39th out of  175 fencers. In a series of six meets in late January, Northwestern beat Temple, Columbia, NYU, Yale and the U.S. Air Force. Liao crushed, going 4-0 in individual matches.  She holds an A-2015 rating. Ratings run from A-D, A being the best, followed by the year earned.

Nerine Uyanik, grade 11 has competed in several National and local events this season, taking three medals: two in November, earning fifth place in both cadet and junior events at the Regional Open Circuit (ROC) in San Jose, then taking seventh for another visit to the podium in a very tough Division 1-A event out of 36 rated fencers. Medals are awarded to the top eight finishers in regional and national events. Uyanik holds a B-2017 rating in foil and a C-2019 rating in epee earned in late January with a third place finish out of 31 fencers in a Division 1A (all ages) event.

Sana Pandey, grade 11, has competed in several local and national womens epee events, including Division 1 competitions, taking first place in junior womens epee in December to add to her second and third place medals from regional events in November for a clean bag of 3 top four finishes. Pandey holds a C-2017 rating.

Ethan Choi, grade 10, continues to build on his Division III National Championship from last summer, fencing foil in both the October and November NACs, finishing 18 of 154 in Division II in October and 85 of 249 in Cadet in November, both very respectable finishes in tough events.  He medaled, finishing eighth of 57, in the ROC in late November. He holds a C-2018 rating.

Kishan Sood, grade 10, fenced in national events in October and November in Cadet, Junior and Division II events. He had a really great finish, taking a bronze medal out of 34 in Division II mens foil, open to all ages, in an ROC in late November. He also finished 18 of 53 in Cadet mens foil at that tournament. He holds a D-2018 rating.

Alysa Su, grade 9 has also fenced in at least 11 National and regional events at the Cadet, Division II and Division I levels, recently. She took third out of 37 in September in the San Jose RYC in Y-14 womens foil and earned a medal finishing seventh out of 43 in the January Regional Youth Circuit (RYC) event in San Francisco. She holds a C-2018 rating.

John Cracraft, grade 8, finished 38 out of 68 in the September RYC in Sunnyvale, then 43 out of 61 in the Y-14 mens foil event at the Treasure Chest RYC.  No rating.

Ethan Liu, grade 7, has not competed yet this year but fenced in several events last year, finishing 43 of 73 in March 2018 Silicon Valley RYC. No Rating.

Ishani Sood, grade 7, has had a great year so far, with a bag of six medals, all except one a top-four finish. She has fenced in Junior, Cadet, Y-14 and Y-12 girls foil events, taking two first place medals at the Super Youth Circuit (SYC) event in Southern California in both Y-12 (48 fencers) and Y-14 (57 fencers). She also finished first in Y-12 and third in Y1-4 in the Super Youth Circuit (SYC) in Denver later in the fall. Finally, she competed in late January in the South Coast RYC and Regional Junior Circuit (RJC), placing second in Y-14 and fifth in Juniors, a remarkable finish in that age bracket! She has a C-2018 rating.

Alena Su, grade 7, has also had a great year earning RYC medals in two September competitions, coming in seventh of 44 in Y-12 womens foil; third of 28 in the same event earlier in the month. She took fifth out of 50 fencers in December in Y-12 womens foil, an excellent result. No rating.

Aaron Bao, grade 6, has fenced in many events this season with very respectable results. In September at the North Texas SYC, Aaron stood on the podium to receive his third place medal out of 63 fencers. In late November, he finished 12 out of 70 at an RYC, and in the mid-January RYC, took 15 out of 60, both in Y-12 mens foil. No rating.

Ethan Wang, grade 6, has competed in many events, local, regional and national as well, finishing 13 out of 60 in the Y-12 mens foil event at the Treasure Chest RYC in San Francisco. He took ninth of 25, locally, in October and traveled to a variety of events out of the Bay Area. He took 39 out of 49 in the Arizona SYC in Y-14 mens foil, 28 out of 38 in Y12 MF. No rating.

Chuyi (Luke) Zeng, grade 6 has fenced a number of local and regional events, taking a respectable 24 out of 60 in the Y-12 mens foil and 46 out of 61 in the Y-14 event at the Treasure Chest RYC in San Francisco in late January. No rating.

Zoie Wang, grade 5, competes very regularly and took second in a late November RYC in San Jose, out of 20,  and took first of 14 in a local Y-10 Womens foil event. In the Late September RYC in Sunnyvale, Wang took second of 18 in Y-10 womens foil and 17 of 44 in Y-12 womens foil and in early September, she took second in Y-10 womens foil at the SYC in North Texas. No rating.

Jiening (Jason) Zhang grade 5, had an excellent result in late January at the Treasure Chest RYC on Treasure Island in San Francisco, taking second out of 38 in Y-10 mens foil and seventh out of 60 in the Y-12 event. Two nice podiums! He took seventh out of 17 in Y-10 MF North Texas Roundup, 44 out of 63 in Y-12 MF. He medaled in late November at the San Jose RYC, taking second out of 31 in Y-10 mens foil and 21 out of 70 in Y-12 MF. In early December, in the San Diego SYC, Zhang took fifth out of 36 in Y-10 mens foil action and 29 in the Y-12 event out of 97. No rating.

Please report all fencing and other activities results to news@harker.org. We love to report how our students are doing!