Saturday, January 26 - Liam Smith won second place out of 98 entries in Men’s Foil at the Guilford High School Novice Fencing Championship held last weekend. Liam, a freshman at Wilton High School competing in his first tournament, fenced 12 bouts to advance to the Final before losing 10-12 to Kadan Lottic from Prospect Fencing Academy.
Liam started the competition by fencing all six fencers in his pool of seven, beating four of his six opponents to advance to the Direct Elimination rounds made up of the top 80 percent of fencers that day. He progressively beat his next five opponents, including the fourth seed, to eventually secure a berth in the title bout against Lottic.
In the bout to decide the top 16, Liam’s blade snapped in half as he lunged for a point against Jackson Wheeler from Marine Science Magnet High School. There were some tense moments as a replacement weapon was located so that the bout could continue.
The Novice Tournament is open to all fencers in Connecticut Division that have fenced for a year or less. It attracted almost 200 high school fencers from across the state including teams from as far afield as Greenwich, New London, Hartford, Fairfield, North Haven, Cheshire, and Ledyard. Liam, who trains at Wilton Fencing Academy, was the only fencer from Wilton.
