Engage I was a coming-together of the old and the new, with veteran fencers returning to the fray, and fresh, young competitors participating in the first ever ranked Lightspeed competition in their age group.

The day began with five cadets (aged 12-15)— three from Lightspeed Saber Academy and two from Gryphon Fencing. Four of the five had met in the field at a practice competition, but had yet to face eachother in officially sanctioned battle. Conner Gutierrez performed admirably for his first time out, taking third place in his first competition of any kind. Isabel Wilson— having several competitions under her belt at this point, took a respectable fourth. But it was Jeremiah Rodriguez— perhaps the most experienced of all five cadets competing— who stunned his rivals by going undefeated in the qualifiers. He went on to defeat Corbin Allen in the finals, taking 1st place, with Allen taking second.

The second wave of the day were the novices, featuring fencers from all over Southern California. This fleet featured many surprises, including a gauntlet of four back-to-back matches admirably fought by Dustin Speratos, and an incredible surge from Max Whitaker who came in 13th at Ignite but this time came out of nowhere to place 2nd in the qualifiers! He was undefeated in the Gold Squadron. Teammate Brandon Nease, who came in 8th at Ignite, did similarly well in the Blue Squadron, though he was soundly defeated by newcomer Neil Stuart, a seasoned competitor from SoCal Saber Academy. Along with his teammate Trevor Poteet, these fencers made up the top 4. In the semis, Stuart defeated Nease yet again in a blowout, and Poteet knocked out Whitaker, avenging his loss in the qualifiers. So the finals came down to teammate versus teammate, with only the superior SoCal Saberist taking the win. That turned out to be Stuart, in a lopsided victory over Trevor Poteet.

The women’s fleet went next, with six ladies from four squads, including the 2018 women’s champion, Jowanna Lewis. Lewis faced one of her longstanding rivals, Patricia “The Castle” Bauler, and lost by a single point in the qualifiers in an unusually low scoring match (which finished at just 4-3). Erin Isbell, in her first Lightspeed competition since February, went undefeated in the preliminary round, though her seasoned opponents, including relative newcomer Angie Pereda, did manage to keep the scores very close. In the end, though, Lewis took revenge and knocked out Bauler in another carefully paced matchup, while Isbell sent Pereda packing. So the finals came down to Isbell versus the champ, and it seems this time the champ just didn’t have it. Isbell won with a comfortable margin, making this her first 1st place finish.

Finally, at 8:30 PM, the advanced tournament began. This was a meeting of competitors who hadn’t fought together in seven months, but it seems they’d hardly lost any ground at all. Seasoned Lightspeed-saber fencer Isaac Islas made a long-awaited comeback and was the only and FIRST entry in Lightspeed history to wield the newly sanctioned Ren-saber. William Alonzo, Thom DeMartino, Tony Zaldua, Sean Holtzman, Andre Gonzales and Edward “Ewok” Trovada made their returns after long and respected careers in Lightspeed. Wyatt Oleson, Daniel Delgado, and Cormac Tellez, newly minted competitors in the advanced division, would have an uphill battle to climb (they each earned two wins!) But even the seasoned fighters had quite a battle amongst themselves, the top 4 cut off coming down to differences of just single points. But at the end of the qualifiers, DeMartino, Zaldua, Holtzman, and Gonzales came out on top. Zaldua, 2nd place overall for 2018, knocked out Gonzales, who went home with his first top 4 finish. DeMartino, the only non-Lightspeed officer in the semis, eliminated Holtzman.

Finally it came down to Zaldua vs DeMartino, two fencers with similar combat ranges, and sometimes similar tactics. But it was clear that Zaldua went in with a plan, stunning DeMartino with a series of defensive 3-pointers— highly uncharacteristic for Zaldua but shooting his score up almost immediately. DeMartino struggled to catch up but was unable to muster more than 1 or 2 points at a time. The fight ended at a lopsided 12-3, with Zaldua walking away with yet another gold medal.

While the highest honors go to winners of the competition, we also wish to acknowledge the winners of our main prize giveaways, and to thank our sponsors. So congratulations to Conner and Neil for your TCSS galactic credits and Sean and Patricia for your new shimmering Ripper Blades! Thank you to TCSS and Ripper Blades for the generous donations.

Overall it was a long, tough day, and we couldn’t admit everyone that we wanted to but we certainly could not have admitted everyone that we did without the assistance of everyone. Special thanks to Jamar Johnson and Steven Buonaugurio for showing up to help even though they couldn’t stay. Special commendations to cadets Jeremiah Rodriguez and Corbin Allen for refereeing for the first time in an official competition. Thanks to all moms, dads, husbands, and wives and everyone else who came out to support their fencers.

— Supreme Leader Snow

RESULTS

CADETS

ADVANCED

WOMEN

NOVICES

HIGHLIGHTS

SPONSORS
Ripper Blades
The Custom Saber Shop

DIRECTORS
Cang Snow
Sean Holtzman

ACADEMY
Corbin Allen
Conner Gutierrez
Jeremiah Rodriguez
JC Marquez
Brandon Nease
Albert Ortaliza
Max Whitaker
Patricia Bauler
Angela Pereda
Daniel Delgado

KRAIT BASE
Tony Zaldua Jr
Sean Holtzman
Isaac Islas
William Alonzo
Jowanna Lewis
Jed Soriano

LIGHT FORCE
Erin Isbell
Garrett Higa
Lily Beal

LONE WOLF BASE
Andre Gonzales
Dustin Speratos
Wyatt Oleson

GRYPHON FENCING
Eric Lessa Fratini
Cormac Tellez
Isabel Wilson

SCSA
Edward Trovada
Trevor Poteet
Shawn Santiago
Neil Stuart
Thom DeMartino