This weekend the Pioneer fencers started the regional tournament circuit at Cleveland State University for the Cleveland Rocks event. On Saturday, Lily Zhu '27, Peter Zhu '29, and Sophia Ahmad '29 competed and on Sunday we had Quincy Liu '26, Chase Fortuna '27, Alex Scott '26 and Sophia Ahmad.

Peter signed up for the challenging Under 20 age bracket and fenced well, winning his first bout and then having competitive bouts for the rest of his pool. This was Peter's first time fencing a regional competition in the United States and he learned a lot from the experience. Sophia had a win in her pool in 17 and Under Women's Epee and made it to the semi-finals where she had a close and well fought bout. Lily had three wins in her pool round to earn the second seed going into the elimination round. She made it all the way to the final but lost in a close and well fenced bout.

Alex Scott had one win in his pool and two bouts where he lost by only one point each. He drew a B-rated fencer in his elimination and did not advance to the round of 16. Quincy had three wins in his pool round, with some close wins and earned the 16th seed going into elimination. Chase had two wins in his pool round and a strong points scored over points received difference to take the 17th seed. Chase and Quincy had to fence each other in the first round of elimination in a well fought match with Chase moving into the 16th seed. His next bout was against the #1 seed and Chase did a great job scoring 11 points out of the 15 needed to win. He scored as many points as the other higher rated fencers did against his opponent who went on to win the event.

Sophia had a great pool round in the Youth 14 Women's Epee and earned the second seed going into elimination. She made it all the way to the finals and took silver!

Please congratulate the fencers when you see them next. Our next tournament will be Sunday, October 5th at home.