The tournament is in Atlanta, but one focal point at the U.S. Fencing Summer Nationals has been Southwest Washington.
Four fencers from Clark County left their mark on the national championships, claiming three individual titles and contributing to a pair of team titles.
Seth Kelsey, a native of Brush Prairie and 2008 Olympian, won the men’s épée national title on Monday. He defeated Cody Mattern of Portland 15-11 in the final match to claim his fourth national championship. A total of 54 competitors entered the competition.
Kelsey, who lives in Colorado Springs, Colo., was also one of four members of the New York Athletic Club team that won the senior men’s épée team tournament. That competition concluded on Thursday.
Lian Osier, a Battle Ground resident, on Wednesday won the women’s individual sabre title in the under-19 age division.
On Thursday, Osier and 16-year-old Kirsten Hee of Vancouver were half of the team from Oregon Fencing Alliance that won the junior women’s sabre team national title. The U.S. Fencing Summer Nationals run through Tuesday at the Georgia World Congress Center.
Malia Hee, Kirsten’s younger sister, on Monday won the 12-and-under girls sabre national title. She also advanced to the top 16 in the girls under-14 tournament.
Osier, who recently completed her freshman year at Notre Dame where she competes for the Irish, said her focus was on winning this under-19 sabre title because she has only one more year of junior eligibility.
Earlier in the week she reached the semifinal round of the tournament’s top division for women’s sabre.
“I think fencing in that (Division 1) first settled my nerves and really helped me calm down” for the under-19 tournament, Osier said by phone from Atlanta on Thursday.
Her only bumpy moment on the way to the under-19 title came when 16-year-old Margaret McDonald of Atlanta scored five consecutive points to square the final match to 15 touches at 12-12.
“I was going too fast and I couldn’t land an attack for a while,” Osier said. “I think I started hyper-ventilating.”
She credited her coach, Ed Korfanty, for calming her down.
“He told me, ‘Stay calm and do your own thing,’ ” she said. “I needed to just breathe.”
Scoring the 13th point gave Osier the confidence to finish the match.
By contrast, Thursday’s team competition was about having fun. The four girls painted blue and yellow stripes and the letters O-F-A on their cheeks prior to the tournament.
“I guess a lot of people laughed at us” for the face paint, Osier said, laughing herself. “We figured this was for fun.”
Kirsten Hee, who attends St. Mary’s Academy in Portland, said her Oregon Fencing Alliance team was confident about Thursday’s bracket, which OFA entered as the second seed and won by scores of 45-13, 45-19, and, in the finals, 45-35.
“I thought we had a pretty good chance to win,” she said.
Hee’s younger sister was overwhelmed by her national title on Monday.
A seventh-grader at Oregon Episcopal School in Beaverton, Malia Hee competes for PDX Fencing Club of Beaverton.
She said via e-mail that when she realized she had won the national title, she broke into tears.
