Renaissance Fencing Club takes eight medals at North America Cups, dominates national events
May 2021
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Three Renaissance fencers won eight national medals at the North America Cups in Fort Worth, Texas and Richmond, VA over weekends in April and May, with eight fencers earning national points in the two events. USA Fencing usually hosts six North America Cups per year but has hosted two in the last four weeks. Renaissance fencers have been training intensely over the past 14 months despite almost weekly tournament cancellations. The season started officially in September with regional events where Renaissance dominated. However, after just two regional events the sanctioning of tournaments was once again halted due to the pandemic. Renaissance coach and Olympian Ann Marsh-Senic worried that the entire season would be cancelled. The Roc of the Rockies the weekend of March 12th marked the return to tournaments and was the tipping point – all events since that time have taken place as scheduled. Eight elite fencers flew to Denver for the opportunity to finally fence a competition. Despite blizzard conditions, Renaissance won ten medals in two days.
Since that time the elite fencers of Renaissance Fencing have competed in Boston, Chicago, Austin, Pennsylvania, St Louis, Fort Worth, Grand Rapids, Cleveland, and Richmond. Adeline Senic (Royal Oak), 13 years old, has competed at all nine events in those nine weekends, earning at least one medal at every competition.
North American Cups are the highest-level national competitions in the United States. They resumed with the first taking place April 16 – 19 and most recently this past weekend in Richmond, Virginia. Adeline took the Bronze Medal in the Y14 Women’s Foil in Fort Worth and placed 8th at the Y14 Women’s Foil in Richmond Virginia this past weekend. Jeidus Deseranno (Grosse Pointe) won Gold at both Y14 Men’s Foil events, Gold at the Y12 event in Fort Worth, Silver in the Under 17 category in Richmond and placed 15th in the Division 1 event, which featured multiple Olympic team members. Jeidus was the youngest fencer in the top 64 of the Division 1 tourney. Luao Yang (Bloomfield Hills) won the Silver Medal in the Y12 event, Bronze Medal at the Y14 event, and placed 15 in the under 17 category. These results move both Jeidus and Luao into position to qualify for the under 17 national travel team next season.
Five additional Renaissance Fencers earned national points at the North America Cups. Sammy Freedman (Grosse Pointe) placed 24th in the Under 17 event earning national points. Vir Gogoi (Novi) upset the number 8 seed at the Y14 event, placing in the top 32 and earning national points for the first time. Derek Han (Birmingham), Konstiantyn Shevchenko (Troy), and Lucas Senic (Royal Oak) all placed in the top 32 of the Y12 Men’s Foil earning national points. Lucas Senic placed 9th in the Y10 event which secured his number three national ranking in the age group.
The fencers finally have a weekend off travel before they head to more May competitions in Chicago, New Jersey and Orlando in preparation for the next North American Cup in Richmond June 4 – 7. Renaissance Fencing Club located in Troy, Michigan offers fencing instruction to all ages and has been in operation since 1999.