Summer Nationals 2024, Day 3 Recap: Fencers Show Their Inner Strength as They Fight for Gold
by Bryan Wendell
COLUMBUS, Ohio — After losing a dear friend recently, Valerie Asher (DC Fencers Club) considered whether she wanted to even fence at this year’s Summer Nationals.
“I didn't really know if I had the heart to come and do this,” she says. “But she was a person who leaned in and was great at connecting to people. And I thought, well, even if I don't fence well, if I want to honor my friend’s memory. I need to go and connect with my people. And my people are here.”
Asher did both — fencing well and connecting with her community of Veteran fencers as she won the Vet-60 Women’s Epee national championship.
That was one of 12 gold medals earned on Monday, July 1, at the USA Fencing National Championships & July Challenge, also known as Summer Nationals.
The gold medal in Cadet Men’s Epee for Daniel Chirashnya (Academy of Fencing Masters) might be considered unexpected given that he fractured his fencing wrist just a month ago.
“Today in warmups was actually the first time I've picked up an epee in about a month,” he says. “It's been really hard to manage because I really wanted to fence.”
The leftie Chirashnya spent the past month doing everything but picking up an epee with his dominant hand. He watched videos, worked on his conditioning and focused on footwork.
And then today came and he finally got the go-ahead to return to full fencing.
“It felt fantastic,” he says. “I've been dreaming about fencing for so long. I couldn't sleep last night, because I just wanted to fence so badly. I've just been waiting for it for so long.”
And speaking of comeback stories, Jasmine McGlade had been retired from fencing for nine years when she announced to the world that she was putting together a team.
“I wanted to dip my toe back in the water of competition and have been secretly fencing this year,” he says. “And so I knew that these badass women would be great teammates.”
That dream Senior Women’s Epee team consisted of Lake Sheffield, Natalia Toby and Christina Watrall.
It wasn’t a coast to the gold medal for the team, called “Mama Said Knock You Out.”
“I should have felt nervous,” Watrall says. “But we were all kind of delusional, and we're like, ‘we'll be fine.’ And we weren't for a while. But then we were, and we slowly brought it back.”
Watrall says the biggest difference-maker was the team dynamic. Four women who had each other’s backs no matter what.
“We were cheering. We were throwing our hands in the air, running up onto the strip,” Sheffield says. “We had so much energy today.”
And with all that energy left out there on the strip, what’s next for these four?
“This is the last competition,” Toby says. “We're going on vacation. We're resting, OK? We'll see you in Atlantic City in October, but anything else? You'll see me at the beach.”
Day 3 Medalists
Vet-40 Women's Epee #
Gold and 2024 National Champion: Caterina Rovati (Orlando Fencing Sports Center LLC)
Silver: Nicole Polanichka (Lancaster Fencing Academy & DC Fencers Club)
Bronze: Meghan Pinchuk (Ace Fencing Academy)
Bronze: Lauren McCoy (Hooked On Fencing)
5th: Kristin Foellmer (DC Fencers Club)
6th: Yamara Escalante (Epee Miami Fencing Club)
7th: Marie Lawson (DC Fencers Club)
8th: Christina Kaneshige (Denver Fencing Center)
Vet-50 Women's Epee #
Gold and 2024 National Champion: Ann Totemeier (Northern Colorado Fencers & Denver Fencing Center)
Silver: Sabina Chernis (Alliance Fencing Academy)
Bronze: Sandra Marchant (Rogue Fencing Academy & The Phoenix Center)
Bronze: Toby Tolley (The Phoenix Center & Rogue Fencing Academy)
5th: Lisa Wolf (Riverside Fencing Club)
6th: Nadia Dreyer (Nova Fencing Club)
7th: Valerie Hutchinson (Denver Fencing Center)
8th: Klaudia Shick (Bucks County Academy of Fencing - West)
Vet-60 Women's Epee #
Gold and 2024 National Champion: Valerie Asher (DC Fencers Club)
Silver: Suzanne Bloomer (Academy of Fencing Masters)
Bronze: Georgina Love (Central Florida)
Bronze: Lydia Fabry (Avant Garde Fencers Club & South Bay Fencing Academy)
5th: MJ Jensen (Olympia Fencing Center)
6th: Amy Montoya (Battle Born Fencing Club)
7th: Carole Jeandheur (DC Fencers Club)
8th: Monisha Tasker (Marx Fencing Academy & Worcester Fencing Club)
Vet-70 Women's Epee #
Gold and 2024 National Champion: Liz Kocab (Plymouth/Ann Arbor Fencing Academy)
Silver: Anna Telles (Salle Auriol Seattle)
Bronze: June Hurme (Olympian Fencing Club)
Bronze: Charlotta Bowie (Modern Duelists Fencing Academy)
5th: Henri Gales (Charlotte Fencing Academy)
6th: Cynthia Runyon (High Desert Fencing Alliance)
7th: Renee Edwards (Louisiana)
8th: Lori Radich (Hangtown Saber Club & The Fencing Center)
Vet-80 Women's Epee #
Gold and 2024 National Champion: Bettie Graham (Chevy Chase Fencing Club)
Silver: Mary Turzillo (Northern Ohio)
Senior Team Women's Epee #
Gold: Mama Said Knock You Out (Jasmine McGlade, Lake Mawu Sheffield, Natalia Toby, Christina Watrall)
Silver: AFMily (Kyle Fallon, Natalie Brooke Gebala, Leehi Machulsky)
Bronze: F4 (Lefu Chen, Heidi Ding, Elaine Hong, Wenjun Zhou)
Senior Team Men’s Foil #
Gold: GSFA (Kian Dierks, Ethan Gassner, Dean Myers, Akhmadillokhon Solikhojiev)
Silver: WDBG (Frederick Fogelson, Isaiah Klotz, Ben Rose, Owen Traugot)
Bronze: GFA (Liam Bas, Peter Bruk, Dayaal Singh, Elijah Onik)
Division I Women's Foil #
Gold: Jaelyn Liu (Star Fencing Academy & Fencing Institute of Texas)
Silver: Sabrina Cho (University of Pennsylvania & Golden State Fencing Academy)
Bronze: Katherine Kim (Golubitsky Fencing Center)
Bronze: JoJo Conway (University of Notre Dame & Escrime Du Lac)
5th: Emily Jing (Jovanovic Fencing)
6th: Joy Liu (Golubitsky Fencing Center)
7th: Katerina Lung (Moe Fencing Club LLC)
8th: Rebecca Cho (Top Fencing Club)
Junior Women's Saber #
Gold: Jenna Shoman (Manhattan Fencing Center)
Silver: Siobhan Sullivan (Oregon Fencing Alliance)
Bronze: Lola Possick (Advance Fencing and Fitness Academy)
Bronze: Janna Freedman (South Bay Fencing Academy)
5th: Alexandra Lee (Princeton University & Premier Fencing Academy)
6th: Angelina LeLe Yang (LA Fencing Academy of Pomona)
7th: Elaine Lu (Zeta Fencing)
8th: Sophie Liu (Capital Fencing Academy)
Cadet Men's Epee #
Gold: Daniel Chirashnya (Academy of Fencing Masters)
Silver: Matthieu Le Borgne (DC Fencers Club)
Bronze: Andy Zheng (Guanyi Fencing Academy & Twin Cities Fencing Club)
Bronze: Junzhe Shan (New England)
5th: Nathaniel Wimmer (Elite Fencing Academy)
6th: Samuel Lee (Elite Fencing Academy)
7th: Christopher Davoodian (Swords Fencing Studio)
8th: Leonardo Chen (Medeo Fencing Club)
Cadet Men's Saber #
Gold: Emilio Gonzalez (Scarsdale Fencing Center & Fencers Club Inc.)
Silver: Semeon Ermakov (Fencing Academy of Denver & Nellya Fencers)
Bronze: Elijah Kim (Globus Fencing Academy)
Bronze: Jeein Joo (South Bay Fencing Academy)
5th: Daniel Holz (Premier Fencing Academy)
6th: Eric Kwalwasser (Stamford Fencing Center)
7th: Devyn Anthony (Peter Westbrook Foundation & Fencers Club Inc.)
8th: Maksymilian Skarbonkiewicz (Oregon Fencing Alliance)
Cadet Women's Epee #
Gold: Julia Yin (Vango Toronto Fencing Center)
Silver: Regina Lee (Swords Fencing Studio)
Bronze: Pinar Yilmaz (Alliance Fencing Academy)
Bronze: Melinda Yao (Alliance Fencing Academy)
5th: Maya Kozlowski (Woodlands International Fencing Club)
6th: Isabella Sterr (Alliance Fencing Academy)
7th: Yeva Pohrebna (Kaizen Academy)
8th: Eva Campbell (Charlotte Fencing Academy)
Day 3 Photos
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