Charlotte, N.C. - The final day of the 2025 Junior Olympics wrapped up with three fencers named national champions, and another gold medal handed out.
Gabrielle Grace Gebala (Silicon Valley Fencing Center) took home a national title in the Cadet Women’s Foil event and gave credit to not only her fencing throughout the day, but gave major credit to her coach and club. Yet again, this just shows how much the fencing community shows up for each other when it matters for fencers.
She said “I think it's, like, really important to me, because especially since at JO's, there's also the coach recognition. And I think my coach has helped me a lot in, like, been there through my lows and highs, even when he sees, like he was like, your soul's broken, but you gotta lift yourself up. And I was like, he's really trying to make sure that I'm at my best here. So he has worked really hard. So I feel that winning that national title is not just me, but like me and my whole club.”
In the single Division I event on the final day of competition, Tristan Szapary (Fencers Club Inc. & Princeton University) found inspiration and hype from the Philadelphia Eagles.
He said “ I have to shout out the Eagles. I'm from Philly, and they won the Super Bowl last week. This morning, I woke up and I watched 30 minutes of Super Bowl highlights and highlights from the parade. So I got to shout out the Birds. Go Birds! It was good, you know, even that helped me sort of be loose today and be happy and you know, fence like a winner.”
Cadet Men’s Saber
National Champion: Elijah Kim (Globus Fencing Academy)
Silver: Connor Chung (Tim Morehouse Fencing Club)
Bronze: Daniel Holz (Premier Fencing Academy)
Bronze: Alex Huang (Lilov Fencing Academy)
5th: Jonathan Ng (Durkan Fencing Academy)
6th: Nazir Primus (Peter Westbrook Foundation & Tim Morehouse Fencing Club)
7th: Landon Su (Miracle Fencing Club)
8th: Christopher Guffey (Globus Fencing Academy)
Cadet Women’s Foil
National Champion: Gabrielle Grace Gebala (Silicon Valley Fencing Center)
Silver: Caterina Fedeli (Epic Fencing Club)
Bronze: Aphrodite Tsimiklis (5T Fencers Club)
Bronze: Lavender Lee (Top Fencing Club)
5th: Rebecca Cho (Top Fencing Club)
6th: Claire Rozpedowski (Manchen Academy of Fencing)
6th: Irene Seo (Gutkovskiy Fencing Academy)
8th: Taisiia Doroshkevich (Star Fencing Academy & Fencing Center of Chicago)
Division I Men’s Epee
Gold: Tristan Szapary (Fencers Club Inc. & Princeton University)
Silver: Elijah Imrek (Alliance Fencing Academy)
Bronze: Nicholas Candela (University of Notre Dame & Battle Born Fencing Club)
Bronze: Fayzulla Alimov (New York Fencing Academy)
5th: Skyler Liverant (New York Fencing Academy & Columbia University)
6th: Diego Calderon (San Diego Fencing Center)
7th: Oleg Knysh (Alliance Fencing Academy)
8th: Curtis McDowald (Peter Westbrook Foundation & Fencers Club Inc.)
Cadet Women’s Epee
National Champion: Regina Lee (Swords Fencing Studio)
Silver: Natalya Cafasso (Olympia Fencing Center)
Bronze: Maya Kozlowski (Woodlands International Fencing Club)
Bronze: Luxi Guo (Yang Fencing Club)
5th: Katya Seregin (Marx Fencing Academy)
6th: Alexandra Rakhovski (New York Fencing Academy)
7th: Chloe (CJ) Tolsma (Alliance Fencing Academy)
8th: Katherine Nemeth (Alliance Fencing Academy)
