Gendered Violence, Strip Politics and a Good Disengage

A small in-house tournament down in Columbus drew a handful of Oberlin fencers for a little bit of competition on Saturday. Those who went fenced well and were highly successful. In fact, this competition saw the continuation of the trend of fencers picking up new weapons and just heading into competition successfully.

The tournament opened with women's foil. The Oberlin women in attendance were first-year Desiree Herrera, fifth-year Catie Bull and the re-emerging Theater professor Astrid Burnett. With a group of tough women in the pool, one of whom coaches down in Columbus, Bull impressively took fourth place. Of course it worked out that Oberlin fencers would have to face other Oberlin fencers in the direct elimination rounds, and Bull was forced to knock Herrera out of the competition.

Men's foil followed. The only male fencer present from Oberlin was fifth-year Captain Jay Gates. He faced a moderate pool, losing only two bouts in the competition - both to the same fencer. But the fencing was solid and the final loss by only two touches left him with a bout for third place, which he won.

On a side note, the entire Oberlin crew was infuriated at this point when they discovered that the women's direct elimination bouts were only being fenced to ten touches and the men's to fifteen. This will only encourage Oberlin in its mixed fencing and will certainly send a few of our women on a rampage against Columbus in the up-coming Todd Curn Tournament.

Mixed epeé drew all three Oberlin fencers. Herrera jumped on the opportunity of fencing additional weapons for the first time because the two hour drive to Columbus for a small pool and one direct elimination round against a teammate did not quite suit her expectations. It may also have had something to do with the alternative of economics reading. Bull and Herrera were the only two women fencing in the mixed competition. Gates went undefeated and took first place - though gaining a significant number of bruises from a fencer who failed to adjust his style between sabre and epeé. Bull, though frustrated by the fact that all of her opponents had reach on her, finally pulled out some lovely body displacements. Herrera faced the standard first-time epeé struggles, but she impressed her opponents and quickly learned the arts of distance (after being pummeled in the face by Gates) and sliding a hand pick into an attacking opponent.

Mixed sabre saw a great deal of success for the Flaming Blades as well as a few yelps. As is understood, sabre is one of the loudest sports on the planet due to the hostile cries during attacks as well as the exclamations over receiving welts (during the last olympics with fencing, the Women's Sabre competition was voted the third loudest event). Gates claimed fourth, very much upsetting one real sabreur whom he beat with his girlfriend watching - though this was only the second time he has competed in sabre and despite too much analysis on the strip. Herrera took eighth out of nine fencers. The best part of this is that she picked up the weapon because she could, even though she has only fenced a few months, and saw a great deal of success. She was matching her opponents on touchés, even if not winning. She looks like she may yet be a successful sabreur and will undoubtedly become great if she can find a suitable battle cry..

Fifth-year Jay Gates is the Captain of the Oberlin Flaming Blades.