Yesterday six RDF kids traveled over to Lincoln, NE for their annual Capital City Youth Classic tournament! It was the first out-of-town tournament for Liam, James L. (the 2nd) and James G. We saw some great bouts, earned lots of experience points testing our skills against new people in a new environment, and enjoyed seeing the friends we’ve been training and competing alongside all season as well as meeting new friends!

In Y12/Y10 Mixed Epee, Robert tied for 3rd. In Y14 Mixed Epee, Tristan won the gold medal, Kalina took silver, Liam finished 5th, James G. was 9th, James L. (the 2nd) ended 11th, and Robert finished 12th. Robert also tied for 3rd in Y10/Y12 combined mixed foil, which is the only time he’s fenced foil EVER!

Full results: https://www.askfred.net/tournaments/1dde97b4-6643-47cc-a00d-8c5bd02badf2/results

The last weekend of March, Malakai, Tristan, Chi Chi, Kalina, and Sarah fenced at the Fencing Center of Chicago’s ROC/RYC tournament! Malakai did a good job staying focused in Division 3 (D & Under), taking home the 3rd place medal and earning his E26 rating, and Chi Chi overcame some nerves from not having done a tournament in a while – she even decided to fence foil just for fun! Tristan fenced D1A for the first time and earned his C26 by finishing 5th in JR Men’s Epee. Kalina continued to be consistently successful in her events, and Sarah qualified for D1A at summer nationals. Pretty good weekend for RDF overall! Here’s the quick summary:

D3 ME: Malakai – 3rd (tie) & E26!
D1A WE: Kalina – 1st, Sarah – 6th, Chi Chi – 17th
JR ME: Tristan – 5th & C26!
D2 WE: Chi Chi – 12th
D1A ME: Tristan – 36th
D1A WF: Chi Chi – 17th (tie)
JR WE: Kalina – 3rd (tie)
D2 WF: Chi Chi – 13th
D2 ME: Tristan – 6th, Malakai – 27th

Full results: https://www.fencingtimelive.com/tournaments/eventSchedule/5DE3F0669E29494A886480D4B7E41A93#today

The first weekend of April, Tristan and Kalina went back to the Chicago suburbs for the Midwest RYC/RJCC tournament. Tristan finished 18th in Y14 Men’s Epee, in 2nd in Cadet, and 9th in Junior. Kalina won the gold medal in Y14 Women’s Epee and tied for 3rd in both Cadet and Junior. Nice fencing, folks!

Full results: https://www.fencingtimelive.com/tournaments/eventSchedule/BE93208C727D4E41A071EBC2EAE626AA#today

Tristan and Sarah fenced at the GRAFA RYC/RJCC/ROC in Grand Rapids, MI last weekend.

Tristan was busy with 4 events in 2 days, winning a pool bout and finishing 27th in JR Men’s Epee as one of the 2 youngest fencers in the event. He ended 21st in Cadet ME. He then won Division 3 ME in a close match with an opponent he struggled with in pools, and earned his D26 rating! He did a particularly good job being patient and smart in a situation where a lot of kids might have lost focus, plus he got some good advice from a friend from Center for Blade Arts. Finally, he took home the 7th place medal in Y14 ME!

Sarah tied for 3rd in D1A WE and renewed her C rating!

Full results: https://www.fencingtimelive.com/tournaments/eventSchedule/9B059A4691C4402F9891CF130ED161D4#today

Three RDF kids fenced at the “youth NAC” in Cleveland, OH. On Friday, Kalina earned the 8th place medal in Y14 Women’s Epee and renewed her B rating! This was her first national medal. On Saturday, James fenced Y12 Men’s Epee, sweeping his pool to become 13th seed, won his first DE and lost his 2nd, finishing 33rd. On Sunday, Malakai fenced Division 2 ME, where he was 3-3 in pools, but unfortunately lost his DE and ended 132nd. Then James was back in Y14 ME, where he went 3-3 in pools and lost a close DE, which put his final place at 142nd.

Full results: https://www.fencingtimelive.com/tournaments/eventSchedule/4E2874CB40914BDCB0286561FA5531D4#today

Okay, okay, it’s not actually on the equinox or even very close to it this year, but we tried, and we just love our alliteration, and technically Cadet and Junior age categories aren’t “youth” like Y8, Y10, Y12, and Y14, but they’re still mostly kids (except Juniors is 20 & under, which is still basically a kid depending on how old you are, but I digress…).

Anyway, in our inaccurately named Equinox Youth tournament, several kids competed for the first time, and we saw lots of great fencing! This was the 3rd tournament of the 2025-2026 Heartland Youth Circuit season and everyone earned points towards end-of-season standings, updated here. We try to make these fun events with the idea of teaching kids and families how fencing tournaments work. We also appreciate the families that came in from Lincoln and Kansas City! Since most of the kids were from our club, though, it’s easiest to just look at the full results on askfred.net below:

Full results: https://www.askfred.net/tournaments/5af034f5-f907-4b86-846f-cb7685f23b72

And because they love fencing so much, after competing in Nebraska on Saturday, Malakai and Kalina traveled to Iowa City on Sunday to fence in the Igloo Open! In Senior Mixed Epee, Kalina tied for 3rd and Malakai finished 10th!

Full results: https://www.askfred.net/tournaments/91c9df12-b31e-4dab-a40a-c58477f1eae7/results

In February, Sarah, Malakai, and Kalina fenced at the Icicle Invitational in Lincoln, NE. In Senior Mixed Epee, Kalina finished 17th, Sarah was 19th, and Malakai ended 27th! In Senior Women’s Epee, Sarah took home the silver medal. Thanks to LFC for putting on a great tournament! (Unfortunately Sarah had her hands full between fencing and coaching and didn’t get to take many photos but at least we remembered to get a group picture!)

Full results: https://www.askfred.net/tournaments/3b171d18-818c-49eb-a86a-c53b506f9cea/results

On Sunday in Iowa, RDF swept the podium at DMFC’s Frostbite tournament. Michael earned the gold and his E26 rating, Mat took silver, and Drew and Liam tied for 3rd!

Full results: https://www.askfred.net/tournaments/9e0ac0f6-d4b3-4d61-bf96-817ef2d9e71d/results