Centennial Fencers Shine in Season Opener

 

 

The Centennial Fencing Team competed today in the first tournament of the season at Roswell HS.  The Georgia High School Fencing League is comprised of 14 schools in the greater Atlanta area.

The first tournament is for experienced fencers only. The Knights men’s team was led by Senior captains Peter Wolff and Kenneth Blackwell. Both placed in the top 32 in a field of 104 fencers.  Veteran Junior fencers include Simon Miller, Jackson Barnes, and Joshua Yao.  Miller and Barnes fenced well in the preliminary rounds but were eliminated in their first direct elimination (DE) bout.

The Knights are coached by Fencing Master Gene Gettler.  Coach Gettler was especially pleased with the performance of his 9^th grade class of “veterans”.  Six freshman have several years of experience at Haynes Bridge Middle School, and three had sufficient competitive experience to be eligible for the first meet.  Duncan Hemauer was awesome, winning 3 bouts in the preliminaries and also his first DE bout.  He was closely followed by fellow freshmen Nick Bray (son of teacher-sponsor Chris Bray), and Joshua Agri.

Senior Women’s captains Holly Nichols and Debbie Lowder also performed well.  Nichols won 4 bouts in the prelims and Lowder won 3 bouts.  In the DE’s, Nichols won 2 DE bouts, and finished 14^th overall after losing a close match to the eventual silver medalist.  Lowder dropped her first DE and finished 38^th.

Next up: a tournament for the new fencers only, to get some experience.  The team is still accepting newcomers.  Fencing is an exciting sport, come give it a try!  We practice Mondays and Wednesdays after school.