After getting up at 4:45, I began to get ready for a tournament in more or less the usual fashion. About an hour later, we started our trek to the venue:
Step 1: Walk up the hill, cross the street, up another hill, and down part of a another street.
Step 2: Wait for the bus.
Step 3: Take the free shuttle bus to the train station.
Step 4: Go down escalator, tap Breeze Card, go down another escalator and wait for a Southbound (airport) train.
Step 5: Get off at Five Points station. Go to Eastbound/Westbound level (take an escalator) and wait for that train.
Step 6: Get on Eastbound train to get to GWCC.
Step 7: Get off train, go up escalator, tap Breeze Card, go up escalator.
Step 8: Turn left, go up stairs, walk down street, cross street, turn left, enter GWCC Building B.
Step 9: Walk, go down escalator. Walk, go down escalator. Walk, comment on how far it is, go down escalator. Keep walking. See the check-in area. Turn left, go down another escalator. Walk through doors. Choose a strip.
I got in line for check-in, and after showing them my USFA card, was able to go get warmed up. I had a lesson, and then went to "pick a fight" with a couple other fencers. I felt pretty ready.
They soon posted the seedings, and then they
posted the pool assignments. I was in pool 1, which was really close to where we were waiting. We went over there and waited for the referee. Eventually, they showed up (and both happened to be very good and followed all of the rules) and we got started. I was second in my pool of 7, winning all of my bouts except one, which I lost 0-2 to Mandeep Bhinder, an A10.
After I finished lunch they posted the DE brackets. They section them off into areas of two strips, fence all of those bouts (round of 128 through round of 16) and then do the rest of the final bouts. My initial seed had been 69, towards the top of the 60-something U's. My seed coming out of pools was 20, which was higher than I had really expected.
My first DE bout was against Berdichvsky (seeded 109) where I won 15-8. I had been really nervous before the bout and I didn't fence very well but was able to change a little at the end and win. In the round of 64, my bout was against Natalie Diehl, a U from Southern California. The score was 15-11, and I was actually fencing again! Next I fenced Caroline Yang and beat her 15-5 in a really good bout. In the round of 16, I fenced Victoria Wines, an A10. The first period was really hard for me, and she had a considerable lead. In the second period, I was doing a little better, but hadn't really caught up. I did pretty well in the final period, especially since she's an A, ending the bout at 14-9, my loss.
I ended up coming in 14th place (out of 120) and earning my D10 rating. Not only that, but my fencing was consistently really good!(Oh, and I earned Y14 points, qualifying me for Nationals next year!)
No comments:
Post a Comment