Fencing team has good outing at Georgia Southern
The Georgia College & State University Fencing Club, opened the season of 2001-2002 with a dual fencing meet at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro.
“This fun tournament is always for the beginners to get their feet wet for the first time,” said head-fencing coach Geza Martiny. Twenty-one GC&SU fencers, showed up to go to Statesboro. Coach Martiny was elated as some of the fencers were hesitant to enter such a competitive event.
Georgia Southern University could not field teams in all the team events and most of their entries were veteran fencers. However, the GC&SU team members not only rose to the occasion with excellent performance but surpassed beyond the expectations of coach Martiny.
Some of the new GC&SU women fencers have shown enough talent that they could become nationally ranked fencers by the end of this season.
“Thanks to the continued support of Dr. Harshbarger and Mr. McCoy, the team could purchase new equipment so the tournament was a success without stops for repairs of electrical equipment,” said Martiny.
The only two returning fencers from last season are Molly Hefner and Will Mizell. Everybody else started to fence with the GC&SU fencing club when school started in August. It is a great accomplishment for the fencing club members because they had to learn not one but three different techniques.
The three techniques are Foil (thrusting weapon, target is the upper torso), Epee (thrusting weapon, target is the entire body/this is what Zorro used in the movies) and the Sabre (trusting and cutting weapon, target the entire upper body from the waist up).
The team events include all three sections for men and women. Each team composses of three fencers. Each team fences for 45 touches, with each team member changing when they reach 5 hits. The team, which reaches 45 touches first, is declared the winner.
The first event for the GC&SU ladies was Foil. Since GSU only had two women fencers, the GC&SU team agreed to allow GSU to have one man and two women on the team. The GC&SU ladies of Michelle Ragghianti, Jenny Rhea and Hefner, did extremely well in focused fencing. In fact, Ragghianti and Rhea won all of their bouts. Until the last round, the GC&SU ladies were ahead of GSU 40-34. However, the two experienced GSU ladies, showed their experience by taken back the lead and eventually won the event 45-43.
In exhibition women’s foil, the GC&SU line-up included Sheila Hill, Kim Ragghianti (twin sister of Michelle) and Taylor Yeary. The women lost the event to GSU by a final 45-28 touches. Everyone made a great effort and Yeary was undefeated.
In the women’s Epee, GC&SU’s Ragghianti, Rhea and Hefner took this event easily.
In women’s Sabr, the GSU team could not field a team and had to forfeit the event.
In the men’s Foil GC&SU, fencers Aaron Craven, Steve Smith and Gus Armstrong. This line-up was all beginners. Armstrong won all of his bouts except one. A veteran GSU men’s team won this event by a score of 45-31 touches.
In the men’s Epee, the GC&SU team of Armstrong, Michael Williams and Craven gallantly fought the experienced GSU team and lost 45-23. The most bouts won for GC&SU was by Gus Armstrong.
In the exhibition Epee, GC&SU fencers Kelly Starling, Ian Pergl and Smith had a great showing against the experienced GSU men’s Epee team and lost 45-20S
In men’s Sabre, GSU could not field a men’s team and forfeited the event.
In the end, GC&SU and GSU tied with three events each. This was a good first showing for some of the newcomers, and good practice for the upcoming season.
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Oct 26 2001. Filed under Sports.
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