VARSITY FENCING University of Toronto Varsity Fencing Team Newsletter
December 2016
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Varsity Blues Men’s Team 2016 Champions Looking for Repeat Kinney Looking to Tokyo 2020 Jeffrey Silver at Provincials
Jeffrey Silver at Provincials It was a fabulous first year for kinesiology student Rebecca Jeffrey who secured the Ontario Provincial Fencing Championships Individual Women’s Silver Medal. Jeffrey added to her provincial performance by leading the Women’s Varsity Sabre Team to a 5th place finish at the OUA Championships, along with securing several podium finishes at other provincial competitions throughout the year.
Men’s Team OUA Champions The men’s fencing team claimed their first OUA title since 2008-09 and 31st in program history since 1938. They finished with 263 points, ahead of the Carleton Ravens (236) and Queen's Gaels (219). The Blues were led by second-year kinesiology major William Kinney, who won gold in the individual men's sabre. Kinney's path to the individual gold was an explosive series of direct elimination victories, which included a 15-3 win over McMaster's Chris Zhang, a 15-4 win over teammate Calum Wilson and a 15-5 gold-medal victory over Jimmy Wintle of Queen's. Wilson also joined Kinney on the podium, claiming bronze with a 15-11 victory over Leo Huang of Queen's. Men's Sabre Team: Gold Medal and OUA Champions (William Kinney, Calum Wilson, Ryan Tham, Marcos Perez) Men's Sabre Individual: William Kinney – Schwende-Tully Trophy - Gold Medal Calum Wilson – Bronze Medal Ryan Tham – 6th Place Marcos Perez Canizares – 38th Place Men's Epee Team: 4th (Colin Dale, Nicolas Slotine, Beston Leung, Charles Lee) Men's Epee Individual: Colin Dale – Bronze Medal Beston Leung – 7th Nicolas Slotine – 24th Sean Su – 34th Men's Foil Team: 5th (Paul Godin, James Hotti, Tom Feore, Yu Chen Yao) Men's Foil Individual: James Hotti – 6th Yu Chen Yao – 11th Paul Godin – 12th Thomas Feore – 19th
A Special Thanks to an Alumnus We would like to thank the Jack Weinbaum Family Foundation for their ongoing support to the fencing program. Your generosity has made an astounding impact on our athletes and coaches and their ability to build and maintain the program’s success well into the future. Thank you!
Kinney is Looking to Tokyo 2020
Third year kinesiology student, William Kinney is already a two-time OUA Individual Sabre Champion, a Provincial Champion, an Eastern Canadian Champion, a National Gold Medalist, and a Junior Panam medalist, so what’s next? He’s got his sights set on the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. Viewed by many in the fencing community as one of the toughest competitors on the Canadian Fencing Circuit, he may just have the right stuff to go all the way, stay tuned. At the December 2016 Break Kinney has medaled twice Jeffrey has medaled once Both are looking forward to the second half of the season which includes the OUA’s and Nationals
Women’s Team 5th at OUA The Varsity Blues women amassed 154 total points in the three category event, taking 4th in sabre, 5th in foil, and 7th in epee. Toronto's sabre team was led by rookie Rebecca Jeffrey who finished in the 8th in the individual sabre event. Fellow teammates Amy Conwell and Linda Huang also had strong showings finishing 14th and 15th respectively. Women's Sabre Team: 4th (Rebecca Jeffrey, Amy Conwell, Buke Arya) Women's Sabre Individual: Rebecca Jeffrey – 8th Amy Conwell – 14th Linda Huang – 15th Buke Ayra – 20th Women's Epee Team: 7th (Yena Lee, Sabrina Ge, Maeve McLeod) Women's Epee Individual: Yena Lee – 7th Sabrina Ge – 8th Maeve McLeod – 12th Gillian Bandey – 27th Women's Foil Team: 5th (Siobhan Drysdale, Ivy Lu, Linda Huang) Women's Foil Individual: Siobhan Drysdale – 6th Ivy Lu – 10th
Coach’s Corner
Contact Coach
Our fencers had a fantastic year, both in and out of competition. Our mission is to deliver a high-performance experience that supports the concurrent pursuit of fencing and academic excellence, and we’re succeeding at both.
Head Coach, Varsity Blues Fencing Thomas Nguyen
Our fencers performed well in their academic programs and medaled in more provincial and national competitions than ever before. Given the young tenure of many of our fencers, this year’s results reached levels well beyond our initial expectations, and we’re looking further to capitalize on our new-found strengths during this competitive season and beyond.
Thomas.nguyen@utoronto.ca (416) 826-6850
From an early development and recruiting perspective, our Junior Blues Fencing Program delivered both William Kinney (now two-time OUA Champion) and Rebecca Jeffrey (Provincial Silver Medalist) to the Varsity Blues ranks. This past summer, we have two young fencers who qualified and competed at the Ontario Summer Games, Caroline Placko (foil) and Astrid Chandler (sabre). We’re hoping to secure additional funding sources to continue this program into the 2016-2017 season and thanks to the Jack Weinbaum Family Foundation, we are off to a good start. Our vision is to develop student-athletes to their highest potential both in sport and academia, who emerge as leaders in a wide variety of gainful pursuits. I’d like to thank the alumni and other contributors for your active support of the program, and will look forward to delivering news of more program victories, as they continue to emerge.
Attention Varsity Blues Alumni The team is preparing to welcome you back with another fun Alumni tournament, likely to take place at the end of March in 2017. It will provide you with an opportunity to brandish out your gear, see old friends, and even take a try against our current Blues. Please keep in touch and we will make sure you get updates!