The Pioneer fencing team started the season at the Hooked On Fencing C & Under event this past Saturday the 13th of September. Seniors Quincy Liu '26 and Alex Scott '26 were joined by Freshman Sophia Ahmad '29. It was a small event and a good warm up to the regional event in two weeks.

In the pool round, Sophia won two of her five bouts, Quincy won 3 of 5, and Alex won 4 of 5. Sophia had a great bout against a C-rated fencer and beat one of the veteran fencers in her pool. Quincy beat C and E rated fencers and had a close loss to the other D rated fencer in his pool. Alex beat one of the two C rated fencers in his pool and came back from being down 0-4 to winning 5-4 in another bout. In the elimination round, Sophia won her first bout convincingly against a fencer with many more years experience and went on to fence the C rated fencer from her pool. It was a good bout and she surprised her opponent with great parry-riposte actions and fleches but could not overcome the initial lead. She finished 7th. Quincy faced an opponent from the other pool and though the bout started pretty evenly, Quincy mounted a lead that he kept to the end of the bout. His next bout was against the opponent he had a 4-5 loss to in his pool. Quincy's opponent got an early lead and used that to stay ahead of Quincy's rallies to catch up. Quincy finished 6th. Alex had a bye into the round of 8 where he had to fence the C-rated fencer whom he defeated in the pool. His opponent made some adjustments after the prior loss and got the lead on Alex. Alex came within one point of his opponent, but could not overcome the point deficit. He finished 5th.

It was a good start to the competition season. When you see these Pioneers please congratulate them on their achievements. Our next event is in two weeks at Cleveland State University for the regional tournament.