Anyways, I am done with Southeast sectionals today, and I have to be honest, I am having a love hate response to my results. It kind of ended along the same lines of most of my tournaments this year. I had dismal pool results and managed to fence decently in DEs until I got to a fencer who was just better than me. Today it was the same guy that knocked me out of the SitS.
I wish I could tell you what happened in pools this morning. I went in with a great attitude, I felt nice and warmed up, I did not have the hardest pool in the room, and I had a lot of support. But for some reason I managed to lose all but one of my matches... and I lost them terribly. I mean I had a negative indicator in double digits. I am not a bad fencer, so I do not know why I have such a hard time in pools every tournament. I mean mentally I knew what to do against pretty much every person I fenced, but execution was not my friend. It did not help that I broke one of my weapons in half and the other was misbehaving.
So anyways, it was a 43 person tournament, after pools I seeded 38th. (I told you it was bad.) I did not get a bye into the 64 like most people there and ended up fencing a gentleman I have fenced before from Savannah. It went well, I used distance very well, and my opponent had a hurt shoulder. So I made it into the round of 32, which means I had already moved up from my seeding out of pools.
In the round of 32 I fenced a fencer who beat me 5-1 in pools. He used a French grip, and if anything I know about French grips having used one for 4 years. I went into the match wanting to control distance much better than I did in pools. It was a close match the entire way through the first period, no more than a couple point lead for either of us. It was 10-10 at the first break. Well during my match my coach was on the next strip over, so everyone from the club was standing behind cheering for him and me. I was feeling good about having the cheering and was ready to work hard for the next 5 points.
Things went down hill from there. He came out and was taking scored a couple single lights. I managed to score one single light and then a double. 12-14 in his favor. I got the next light and walked back to the line. Everyone was rooting for me, and I thought, "come on now, everyone is counting on you."13-14 Well in the next point my opponent came forward missed, and as he recovered, he brought his arm back to soon. I got a good quasi-flick to the top of his arm. 14-14 We go back out and I quickly see an opening, and immediately launch a fleche, my opponent recovered quickly enough though and managed to get a double. still 14-14. We came back out and he came forward with an attack from high. But he did nothing with my blade and brought his hand down into my point before he could get off his attack. 15-14! I was very excited to have come back from 12-14 in that second period. I also managed to defeat the 6th seed as the 38th seed. YAY for upsets!
My next match in the round of 16 was my loss. I was thoroughly handled. I managed 7 points on him, as opposed to the 6 I got at SitS. I still feel like I should be giving this guy a better match than I am... I don't know why I can't see through his fencing. He is a lot of fun to fence though.
As 38th seed, I am pretty sure I finished 16th. With 43 fencers, 11 of them qualify for division 1A. Now I don't know exactly how this all works but I know anyone who qualifies for 1A through another means does not count towards the 11 that get to go. That means it would take 5 of those fencers to be qualified through other means. I am not holding my breath that I will get an invitation this year.
Not a big deal. I had a lot of fun. The tournament was run very smoothly and the directing I experienced was efficient. Thanks to all the refs who were there and helped make it a knock out tournament. While I did not manage to kick it in to over drive in pools, at least I pulled something out in DEs to make it a decent end result. And again, I had fun... after pools anyways.
Now I have the Touche tournament this coming weekend and next weekend there is a Dunwoody tournament that I would like to go to (team and open epee), but I don't know if it is in the financial cards considering gas and that I broke a weapon this afternoon. Let us hope... it would be fun to get one more A tournament this year.
And that is enough typing for now. I think I will go find food. thanks for reading and have a great day and happy fencing.
05-04-2008 06:29 PM