The US Men’s Epee and Women’s Sabre teams continued to mine for gold in Reno, Nevada this week as both teams won their events yesterday. The US had already swept the individual gold medal events for the first time in the history of the Pan American Zonal Championships.
In the Men’s Epee event, the team of Soren Thompson, Seth Kelsey, Cody Mattern, and Benjamin Bratton crushed their first two opponents. As the #1 seed in the region, they defeated Mexico 45-18 and then Chile 45-17.
That set up a gold medal match against Canada. The match was close throughout and ended with the US winning 28-27 to take the first team gold medal at this year’s Pan Am Championships.
The victory adds to Team USA’s FIE points but most likely will not move them up in the rankings. The Pan American zone is the first to fence their FIE Zonal championship events, so the full ranking changes won’t be known for 2 weeks, but Fencing.Net’s current projections have the US epee team staying at 3rd place going into the World Championships.
In the Women’s Sabre event the US team of Mariel Zaguins, Daria Schneider, Ibtihaj Muhammad, and Dagmara Wozniak defeated the Dominican Republic 45-30 and then won gold in the final vs. Venezuela 45-29. The victory is a repeat of their 2010 gold and should keep the US at 4th place in the team standings heading into the World Championships.
Results: Team Men’s Epee:
1. USA
2. Canada
3. Venezuela
4. Chile
5. Brazil
6. Colombia
7. Mexico
8. Puerto Rico
Women’s Team Sabre Results:
1. USA
2. Venezuela
3. Mexico
4. Dominican Republic
5. Argentina
6. Brazil