Fencing Success Continues
Posted on August 01, 2016
Macleans College students continue building on their early season results in local and national fencing competitions.
National Competitions
The National Under 17 and Under 15 Fencing competition was held during the school holidays at Massey High School. Macleans College students performed well with several notable performances.
On Saturday, in the Under 15 Men’s Foil competition, Nick McGuire-Barnes 10OBT was placed 9th and Alex McGuire-Barnes 10TYT was placed 12th.
Following the men’s competition Amy Skidmore 10CWR represented Macleans in the Under 15 Women’s Foil competition, placing a commendable 15th in her first competition.
The following day, in the Under 17 Mixed Sabre competition, Michael Purcell 12MLK was placed 2nd. This was an impressive result as it is Michael’s first year competing in the Sabre discipline. Later that day, in the Under 15 Mixed Sabre competition, Nelson Lee 10HRS was placed 2nd. This was a fantastic result for Nelson as it is only his second year of fencing and his first year competing in the Sabre discipline.
The Under 17 Men’s Foil competition was held on the final day. Michael Purcell was the best placed in 12th. Also competing was Nick McGuire-Barnes and Alex McGuire-Barnes who were placed 18th and 20th respectively (although both still qualify as Under 15).
Local Competitions
The Fencing North Secondary School Circuit competition started May 14th with over 100 fencers from Auckland, Bay of Plenty and Waikato secondary schools competing.
The competition consisted of three ranking rounds and a finals day. Macleans College was well represented with, on average, twenty students fencing across three divisions in each round.
Michael Purcell was Macleans’ top performer, taking out 2nd place in the Mixed Sabre and 6th in the Men’s Foil competition.
Continuing on from good pre-season results, Alex and Nick McGuire-Barnes were the next best placed Macleans students even though they are still in year 10. Their consistently improving results over the last year has been rewarded with selection in the NZ team. They will compete in the Australian Under 15 and Cadet (Under 17) Championships to be held in Sydney, during the last week of term 2. They are both currently ranked in the top 10 in New Zealand for their age group.
Just as important as those who are placing highly, are the many students who show courage to compete for the first time this year. Well done to Lia Antonets 11KRM, Kevin Hou 10PEU, Ferrari Huang 10HAK, Henry Lockhart 10HAK, Brian Lee 11GUB, Nelson Lee 10HRS, Gilbert Li 11SUM, Isabel Li 10PEU, Hans Santoso 11GUB, Jonathan Shaw 11GUB, Amy Skidmore 10CWR, Elinor Wang 12DUT, Hayley Xie 10PEU, Aaron Zhang 10OBT, Eileen Zhang 11KGT, Katrina Zhang 12DUT, Brendan Zhang-Liao 11MGT, and Sky Zhong 11HMB.
Macleans College was also awarded the Shield for School Sportsmanship for the Fencing North Secondary School Circuit competition. The judges commented that during all the competitions (rounds and finals), whenever there was a Macleans College student fencing, there was always at least one other student supporting and encouraging from the side-lines.
