2026 Junior Olympics

This past weekend Colton, Addie and Evan all participated in the US Cadet/Junior National Championships in Kansas City!! 

Colton fenced first in Cadet with a consistent pool performance balancing a mix of aggressive offensive tactics and his signature pesky defensive game. He respectfully went 3-3 beating some tough opponents (one who placed 15th overall). As is the case in these events, every DE is very difficult there are no gimmies…Colton drew Midyany from NYFA (32nd overall) he lost 8-15 but fought hard in the second period which was 4-4. Colton finished 180th out of 308 fencers!! Great Work!!

Addie was next in Junior Women’s Epee! Addy came out strong winning her first two bouts against more experienced tough competitors!! She had two 4-5 bouts with nationally ranked fencers that were real nail bitters!! She ended up 2-4 out of pools making the cut! She pulled nationally ranked Sophie Elston (California) and kept up with Sophie in the first period 7/10. In the end she lost 9-15 but felt it was a solid effort on her part!! Addie finished 193 out of 264.   

Monday Evan and Colton participated in the Brutal Junior Men’s Epee where like all the events anything can happen and every opponent is Tough!!

Colton, after a successful Cadet event, struggled to find his grounding in pools but in his last bout he dug deep to summon up his courage to fight… and he won against a much more experienced opponent 5-2!! This was Colton’s first National Junior event. He didn’t make the cut however he ended it on a note that shows Emotional resilience and Courage!! 

Evan coming off a brilliant performance (he put his emotional/mental game as the leader instead of technique/tactical) at the last Regional winning Junior earning his A, 3rd in Div1A and 3rd in Div 2 had a lot of pressure to see if he could demonstrate that wasn’t just a fluke…. He did!! In his first pool bout against Riggins (who beat him 15/5 at the SNC in D1A), he took a commanding 4-0 lead and won 5-1….getting Riggins out of his head. He swept through pools only losing his last one bout. He came out of pools 43rd out of 366 fencers. Again no DE s in these events are a cake walk!! In Evans first DE, he got up quickly than took the pressure off and his opponent quickly took advantage of that and took the lead!! At the last break, Evan was down & he went to his mantra - self trust-be convictive-work! Evan came back from 12-14 to win 15-14! In his next DE he had Austin Yu who must of not had strong pools (172 out of pools) but who’s an excellent fencer. It was back and forth, then Evan had a lead 9-7 but Yu really started to use his baiting strategy in a skillful way that drew Evan into being hesitant i.e. self doubting just enough so that Yu could win 15-11 and eventually upset higher seeds to reach the R16! Even though Evan was disappointed not to make it further he realizes that he’s made some very important changes to his mindset/overall game that demonstrate with Self-Trust/ Self Awareness what he’s Capable of doing!! 76th out of 366!

Thank You to the Club Members/Parents/ Teammates who supported Colton, Addie, Evan and me to get us to KC!!