UTSA Fencing, one of the school’s oldest groups on campus, dating back to the 2000’s, competed in a tournament hosted by the Southwest Intercollegiate Fencing Association at The University of North Texas on Saturday, November 4.
In response to the team’s overall performance, junior Joseph Mendez said “the team was really balanced.”
The team has recruited many new faces, and are all positioned to compete, to learn, and to get tournament experience.
Fencing senior Chase Bowling commented on the team’s performance at the tournament, “It’s a learning experience for the team. This was the first time rookies were allowed to compete, so it was a lot of learning on how it actually works.” With new oppurtunities to learn, the members are poised to participate in future tournaments.
Team morale is relatively high during competition both on and off the fencing strip. Megan Beeson, a senior fencer said “I love the road trips… the opportunity to go to different schools and meet different teams is my favorite part.”
Uplifting and motivating members is imperitive to maintaining team chemistry and camaraderie. Beeson said “Everyone is accepting of everyone else…building each other up is really important… it’s important we lift each other and talk to each other.”
The team’s overall success has been put on notice lately. In 2016-2017, the fencing team won “Intramural Club of the Year” and aim to build from heir momentum and progress as a club. As a team, they are slowly working on achieving their future goals of recieving more members.
“The future’s pretty good. We got a good turn out this year. I’m excited,” senior and President Julian Robinson reports. Robinson’s favorite part of the tournament was “seeing our new fencers go in, compete and see what they learn. It was really gratifying seeing how much we put in to practice and see them do well.”
The rise of the fencing team’s numbers as well as the progress they have achieved inspired the team to pursue new goals. Their future goals include branching outside of Texas, senior Megan Beeson said “we’re wanting to branch out to national competition sphere.” The future of the team is bright and with their optimism as well as work ethic, they may achieve their goals.
If becoming a member of UTSA’s fencing team interests you, you can contact them on RowdyLink. They also meet periodically in the blue room of the Recreation center.
