Local Fencers Bout the Best for 16 Medals at National Championships

THE WOODLANDS, TX -- Students from local fencing club Alliance Fencing Academy brought home 16 medals from the largest fencing tournament in the world this past week. The USA Fencing Summer Nationals and July Challenge (Summer Nationals) was held July 2-11, 2022 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Over 4,500 fencers representing over 550 clubs from 45 states and 12 countries competed at Summer Nationals. Sixty-six different fencing events took place over the two-week long championship.

Alliance Fencing Academy had over 90 students qualify and attend the championship. Alliance fencers ranged in age from 8 to over 70 years old. Alliance fencers brought home 16 medals, including 2 Gold medals, 2 Silver medals, 1 Bronze medal and 11 top-8 medals. Based on year-long results, 4 Alliance fencers earned positions on the United States Fencing Teams for the upcoming year: Tokyo Olympian Anna Van Brummen will fence on the Women’s Epee Senior World Championship team, and fencing for USA’s Cadet World Championship team are Sam Imrek and Alexander Liu (Men’s Epee) and Yasmine Khamis (Women’s Epee).

Eighteen years ago, Alliance Fencing Academy had less than 10 members. Now the club has grown to more than 250 members with two locations in Houston and The Woodlands. The Club is home to 5 World Champions, 3 Olympians (2 bronze medals), over 40 US National Champions, and multiple NCAA and International Champions and medalists. Alliance Fencing Academy was founded in 2004 by United States Olympic Coach Andrey Geva. Geva led Team USA’s Women’s Epee Team in the 2016 Olympics in Rio, an historic Gold medal win at the 2018 World Championship in Wuxi, China, and led Team USA’s Women’s Epee Team in the 2020(1) Olympics in Tokyo. Alliance Fencing Academy is a top producer of collegiate fencers, with nearly 50 students receiving athletic and academic scholarships to top US universities. These athletes compete on NCAA teams at Princeton, Columbia, UPenn, Penn State, Notre Dame, Northwestern, Stanford, The Air Force Academy, and other universities.

Alliance Summer Nationals Medalists:
Gold- Samuel Imrek, Junior Men’s Epee (343 fencers competing)
Gold – Seungwon (Stewart) Lee, Y14 Men’s Epee (226 fencers competing)
Silver – Miles Weiss, Division 1 Men’s Epee (180 fencers competing)
Silver – Melinda Yao, Y14 Women’s Epee (187 fencers competing)
Bronze – Chloe Tolsma, Y12 Women’s Epee (120 fencers competing)
5th place medal – Sergei Kudriavtcev, Division 1 Men’s Epee (180 fencers competing)
5th place medal – Elijah Imrek, Division 2 Men’s Epee (214 fencers competing)
6th place medal – Courtney Hurley, Division 1 Women’s Epee (125 fencers competing)
6th place medal – Yasmine Khamis, Cadet Women’s Epee (180 fencers competing)
6th place medal – Avni Shiv, Y12 Women’s Epee (120 fencers competing)
7th place medal – Alexander Liu, Junior Men’s Epee (343 fencers competing)
7th place medal – Ankith Prasad, Cadet Men’s Epee (255 fencers competing)
7th place medal – Victoria Zhang, Y14 Women’s Epee (187 fencers competing)
8th place medal – Michelle Lee, Junior Women’s Epee (224 fencers competing)
8th place medal - Kelley Hurley, Division 1 Women’s Epee (125 fencers competing)
8th place medal – Dwain Blakley, Veteran 70 Men’s Epee

Fencing competitions are divided by gender, age and rating. Fencers earn ratings A-E (A being the highest) to U for unrated. Division 1 competitions are limited to top fencers who have an earned rating of A or B. Age-restricted events are limited by age, with events for youth: Y10, Y12, Y14 (i.e., Y10 for fencers 10 years old and younger), Cadet (17 years old and younger), Junior (21 years old and younger), Senior (fencers older than 20), and Veterans 40, 50, 60, 70.

In each event, fencers compete in pools of 6-7 athletes. Athletes fence one another in 5-touch bouts. Based on their performance in pools, fencers advance to lengthier Direct Elimination bouts to ultimately determine the winner of the competition.