USFA Summer National entries

[edew]

I don't know how you can say that by limiting the number of events a fencer can compete in, there will be a greater number of competitors. People still need to qualify. If fencer X is not allowed to compete in event Y, he might not attend the qualifiers for event Y and might decrement the number of qualifiers.

You can only have more fencers compete if you accept alternates, but USFA no longer accept alternates because that becomes a logistical nightmare.

[oiuyt]

Nick Chinman (Summer Nationals 2003):
Y14ME 1st
U16ME 1st
DIAMF 3rd
U16MF 2nd
U19MF 5th
U19ME 20th
U19MET (NCF) 1st
D1ME 33rd
Y14MF 1st

9 events in 9 days including 7 medals. Granted D1ME was the second to last day, but he won Y14MF on the last day, so burn-out may or may not be the issue. There is a limit on how many events one can enter. That limit is 9 (not including team events which could, in theory, push that total a bit higher). How can you tell someone who's contending for spots on national teams that s/he has too many events and therefore won't have the opportunity to attempt to qualify? Currently Nick is ranked 1st in junior ME, 5th in junior MF, 1st in cadet ME, and 3rd in cadet MF. Should he be forced to choose only three of these teams to even try for? He's also 28th in senior ME and 22nd in senior MF. Limiting the number of events just doesn't work for some of our top up-coming fencers.

I thought that the size of the cut made with the new qualification path was too draconian. This is less of an issue when one considers the interpretation of holding a D2/3 qualifier, assigning the D2 slots first (all of which also give D3 qualification if the fencer is D or below), THEN assigning D3 slots (which guarantees at least half of the field is above the cut line for D3). I have no problem with saying that someone has to be in at least the top half of his/her local division (excluding the top fencers, ie the A's/B's) in order to fence for a national championship. In many (most?) divisions the cut line is considerably more lenient than that (any fencer qualified for cadet or junior events at nationals is auto-qual'd to D2 and therefore D3, for smaller divisions the minimum of 3 qualifying slots comes into play in many weapons).

Taken from the minutes of the October, 2003 BoD meeting where the new qualifying paths were approved:

Require a more standardized qualification path for Division III Championships. 30% of "D" and under in each Division's Division II qualifying competitions qualify for Division III National Championships.

RATIONALE: When Division III National Championships were introduced the goal was to encourage fencers to compete in this new category and thus the qualification paths were very simple and open ended. Anyone who fenced at the Division or Section qualifying competitions who had a classification of "D" or lower would be eligible to compete in the Division III National Championships. The interest in this category has become a significant factor in the dramatic increase in participation of the National Championships.

(Note: The original motion was amended to 25% with a minimum of 3 to match the other qualification path changes undertaken at the same time)

That rationale makes sense... the qualification path for the event, when new, was intentionally easy. Now that the event is no longer new there's no reason not to bring it more in line with the rest of the events at Nationals.

-B :)