Summer Nationals 2024, Day 8 Recap: Fencers Find the Right Mindset for Gold
Share:
by Nicole Kirk
Kai Osminkina-Jones, Sophie Lenk, and James Boudreaux were among the Day 8 medalists who shifted their mindsets to find gold at the USA Fencing National Championships & July Challenge, also known as Summer Nationals.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Y-10 Women’s Saber National Champion Kai Osminkina-Jones (Manhattan Fencing Center) claimed her gold medal and she says “It's really crazy. I feel that it was so thrilling that the second that I saw the nine, seven score, I felt like I could do it. And the second I hit her, I felt just so happy.”
Kai is one of seven gold medals earned on Saturday, July 6 at the USA Fencing National Championships & July Challenge, also known as Summer Nationals.
While reflecting on her final bout she expressed gratitude to her coach for helping her through the match.
“In the start, I was losing. I was actually losing seven, three. And then I knew that if I decided that I had the plan, that I would succeed. But I also knew if I had the plan, but at the same time, went and used the plan, but didn't act like it was one point by one point, I would really lose,” she says.
“So I thought why not just think of it as one point by one point, but also merge my plan. And I feel like my coach helped me a lot in keeping that plan up to date.”
Sophie Lenk (Massialas Foundation), came out of pools ranked 22nd and knew she was “not going to be at the top” because she lost one pool bout.
Talking about her mindset shift going into direct elimination she says it was a bit of both a mental shift and focusing on her fencing.
“I think it was actually a bit of both of those I knew coming out of pools. But I just told myself, I kind of split the focus and it would work out if I just want one point at a time.”
James Boudreaux (Elite Fencing Academy) claimed his Y-12 Men’s Epee national championship, “I worked really hard in the club for this.”
Coming out of pools, James felt like he hadn’t done his best and had to fence harder bouts earlier one.
“So I've messed up in pools so I had to fence really good people early on,” he says, “so I just decided to forget about pools and then just fencing my best each bout.”
Throughout his final bout he blocked out all of the cheering but he was sure to join in when he realized he had won the national title, “I joined in on the screaming.
Day 8 Results
Y-10 Women’s Saber
Gold and 2024 National Champion: Kai Osminkina-Jones (Manhattan Fencing Center)
Silver: Inara Muller (Fencing Academy of Boston)
Bronze: Rei Nemorin (Manhattan Fencing Center)
Bronze: Vivienne Vudthithamrong (Nellya Fencers)
5th: Sophie Hwang (LA Fencing Academy of Pomona)
6th: Grace Cheng (West Coast Fencing Academy)
7th: Sophia Cord (Premier Fencing Academy)
8th: Cindy Chen (LA Fencing Academy of Pomona)
Y-12 Men’s Epee
Gold and 2024 National Champion: James Boudreaux (Elite Fencing Academy)
Silver: Henry Kim (New York Fencing Academy)
Bronze: Noah Gacioch (Academy Of Fencing Masters)
Bronze: Neel Mehrotra (Pegasus Sword Academy)
5th: Sangwook Park (Bay Area Fencing Club)
6th: Aman Singleton (Olympia Fencing Center)
7th: Theo Reichmann (West Berkeley Fencing Club)
8th: Gene Kim (Austin Fencers Club / Olympian Fencing Club)
Y-12 Men’s Foil
Gold and 2024 National Champion: Bradley Li (Star Fencing Academy)
Silver: Hanson Chen (Gutkovskiy Fencing Academy)
Bronze: Alex Lu (Plymouth/Ann Arbor Fencing Academy)
Bronze: Mason Bieler (Elite Fencing Club)
5th: Noah Wandji (Rain City Fencing Center)
6th: Fletcher Mazaheri (Bluegrass Fencers' Club)
7th: Andrew Park (Silicon Valley Fencing Center)
8th: Daniel Li (Team Touche Fencing Center)
Division III Women’s Foil
Gold and 2024 National Champion: Sophie Lenk (Massialas Foundation)
Silver: Dasha Simonov (Gutkovskiy Fencing Academy)
Bronze: Kylie Wynn (Golubitsky Fencing Center)
Bronze: Lauren Frank (North Bay Fencing Academy / Phoenix Falcons Fencing Club)
5th: Ava Hobson (Massialas Foundation)
6th: Sophia Wang (Epic Fencing Club / SCAD-Atlanta Fencing)
7th: Sylvie Troxel (Rain City Fencing Center)
8th: Shelby Johnson (Salle De Long Fencers)
Division II Women’s Epee
Gold and 2024 National Champion: Katya Seregin (Marx Fencing Academy)
Silver: Serena Xu (Cavalier Fencing Club)
Bronze: Elisabeth Schor (Maximum Fencing Club)
Bronze: Zoey Duong (Las Positas Fencing Center)
5th: Maia Taylor-Casamayor (Rochester Fencing Club / Cleveland State University)
6th: Grecia Saucedo (EWA Fencing LLC / Phoenix Falcons Fencing Club)
7th: J. Davis
8th: Audrey Nguyen (Olympic Fencers Club / Georgia Tech University Yellow Jacket Fencing Club)
Division II Women’s Saber
Gold and 2024 National Champion: Gloria Ruoyan Wang (Culver Military Academy / Southern California Fencing Academy)
Silver: Satie Kim (Southern California Fencing Academy)
Bronze: Aurora Colter (Pennsylvania State University / Fencing Academy Of Denver)
Bronze: Melissa Chiang (Zeta Fencing)
5th: Maya Golovitser (South Bay Fencing Academy)
6th: Reem Siddiqui (Renaissance Fencing Club)
7th: Lara Kandadai (Manhattan Fencing Center)
8th: Adelyn Tan (Cardinal Fencing Club)
Division II Men’s Saber
Gold and 2024 National Champion:Carson Bosita (Globus Fencing Academy)
Silver: Zachary Luhan (Oregon Fencing Alliance)
Bronze: Max Wang (Midwest Fencing Club)
Bronze: Luke Lesueur (Avant Garde Fencers Club)
5th: Noah Lee (San Diego Fencing Center)
6th: Cayden Yap (Halberstadt Fencers' Club)
7th: Guillaume Chabenat (Fencing Academy of Denver)
8th: Nick Lin (Houston Sword Sports)
Day 8 Photos
Find all the great Day 8 photos on Facebook.
