The School District #22 fencing team put up some solid gold showings at their home tournament last weekend at the Beairsto School gym.
Carlie Bickel of Seaton won the gold in both the Cadet Girls and Open Women Epée categories, beating out her little sister Landrey for the top spot.
Jaxsen McKay beat out his training partner David Enns of Kalamalka Secondary for first place in Cadet Boys Epee, while Chris Dhlouey of Vernon shared the bronze with Finlay Nichol of Kamloops.
Miles Forrest of Beairsto stopped Ty Cheyne to strike gold and silver medals in the U12 boys Epée while Andrew Schmidt and Ian Oliphant of Beairsto shared the bronze.
On the girls U12 side, Hannah Zandvliet iced Danica Ariano of Beairsto for the gold, while Ayano Robertson of Beairsto bagged the bronze.
Chad Linton of Vancouver defeated Matt Clarke of the Okanagan Freestyle Fencing club for top spot for the Open Men while David Enns and Brendan Robertson, the coach of the school district team, shared the bronze.
Two weeks ago, two members of the local team won medals at the Canada Cup tournament in Vancouver.
Schmidt knocked out a top fencer from Vancouver by a single point in the dying minutes of the match to make it into the final four of the U12 épée only to drop his next match in straight sets to an older and larger opponent also from Vancouver.
“Andrew was all smiles as he stepped onto the Olympic podium at the Richmond Olympic Oval gym at a late hour on a Sunday night,” said Robertson, who also managed a medal in the Veteran’s Épée event.
Robertson fell short by one point to Hungarian Bela Suveg in the final match to claim the silver.
The locals fence Wednesday nights at Beairsto. Call the school at 250-542-1388 if you are interested in joining the club.
