The Ascalon tournament in Ohio was a sensational event. The format was solid, but the fencing conditions were confined to say the least; nevertheless, our Philadelphia area fencers did all sorts of damage all weekend. Everybody did well in one way or another, and a very large proportion of our fighters either came away with medals, or finished high in the rankings. As a group, we definitely came prepared.

Congratulations to everyone for doing so well under tough conditions, especially to Crossing’s own, the Phantom himself, Aidan Witherspoon for winning Gold, and Jon Paulino from the Philadelphia Common Fencer’s Guild for winning the prize fight. Those last several matches had some of the best Longsword fighting I’ve ever seen at a tournament, and they were exceedingly hard fought. The scores went back and forth and sometimes remained tied through multiple exchanges, so on top of everything else, the suspense was insane.

I also have to mention that another Crossing Fight School fencer, Camilla Frazier, fought brilliantly, got very, very deep into the tournament, and was only stopped from reaching the top 8 by Jon. Cam’s fight against one of Gem City’s best, Tom Kesler, was one the most judiciously fought matches I’ve ever seen. It’s not an exaggeration to say it was emotional to watch Cam patiently and precisely deploy exactly what was needed to get that win.

If I went into detail about every awesome thing I saw over the weekend (Elanora getting some of her mojo back, Stevi medaling on Friday and terrorizing her opponents, Mike’s blinding speed, Connor’s SENSATIONAL fighting at the tournament and Deed of Arms, etc.) this post will take days to read, so suffice it so say that you all should be very proud indeed. We have a wealth of talent where we are, and we can all continue to make each other better if we remain committed to our training.

See you all soon.