Ace Fencing Academy

Michal Gurrola took bronze at the 2026 Okawa Open hosted at the Wooden Center on the beautiful UCLA Westwood campus 4/18. With a focused 5-1 pool start, Michal seeded 3rd in direct elimination and earned a bye through the table of 16. She defeated the 6th seed from UC Santa Barbara 15-14 to reach the semis, a very close 14-15 loss to the silver medalist. Michal bounced back and won the fence-off for 3rd with another nail-biter 15-14 victory over an athlete from LAIFC to take home the bronze. 🤺🥉

Congratulations to Chloe Kane, the 2026 California silver medalist in High School Women's Epee. The state championships were contested 4/19 at Chaminade High School. Chloe crushed her pool with a 6-0 record (+20 indicator) to seed second into the direct elimination rounds. In the table of 32, she went 15-2 over her first opponent from VAPA, then 15-6 over an athlete from El Segundo High School/LAIFC. The round of 8 also went 15-6 in Chloe's favor over a fencer from Immaculate Heart/Avant Garde Fencers Club. In the semis, Chloe beat the #3 seed from LACHSA/Swords Fencing Studio 15-12 to make the final and take home silver.

This medal capped off a strong season for the high school sophomore, who also earned the overall silver for '25-'26 with the combined results from two regular-season tournaments held earlier in the school year.  🤺🥈

Mason Lee took gold in the U17 age category at the New Mexico Military Institute Modern Pentathlon Regional. The event was held April 18th at the public military high school and junior college known as "The West Point of the West" in Roswell, New Mexico. 

With a strong 24-10 record, Mason finished tied for second place in the epee portion of the competition, which saw senior and junior pentathletes from around the country--along with cadets from the military institution--combined into one round-robin. Mason finished the rest of his events with a 4 second overall victory in the U17 bracket to earn gold. 

Given the competition's location, we have only question left for Mason: did he return to California bearing any evidence of oddly-shaped spacecraft or little green men? Perhaps he is sworn to secrecy...  🤺👽

Spencer Pinchuk earned a bronze medal at the 7th annual Precision Regional Junior, Cadet and Youth Circuit hosted April 10th-12th in Torrance, California. Competing in the Y10 age-group, Spencer fenced a 3-2 pool to seed 14th out of 32 young athletes in direct elimination, where he dialed-in to make a strong run into the medal rounds. 

After a bye to the table of 32, Spencer went 7-6 over his first opponent from LAIFC in an overtime thriller, which wasn't destined to be the last nail-biter of the event. In the round of 16, Spencer upset the #3 seed from Yang Fencing 9-4, using all the tactical tools at his disposal, a well-played mix of offense, defense and counter-offense. In the round of 16, Spencer again took the match to the wire with a 10-9 overtime victory against a fencer from Yang Fencing. His semi bout against the #2 seed from Maximum Fencing also went the distance with a squeaky close 9-10 loss to the silver medalist. Congrats to Spencer on the strong fencing and bronze medal!  🤺

On March 29th, Ace fencers took home three medals at this season's divisional qualifier for the National Championships, to be held this summer in Portland, Oregon. Eric Speicher earned gold in Division 2 Men's Epee, with Wizard Toussaint taking silver in the same event, plus gold in Y14 later the same day. 🤺

In Div. 2, both fencers got off to a bit of a slow start, going 2-3 in pools, but dialed in for the direct elimination round. Eric went 15-13 over the 7th seed from Santa Barbara Fencers Club in the table of 16, then upset the #2 seed from Beverly Hills Fencers Club, also 15-13. In the semi-final, he defeated the 3rd seed from TeamK 15-12 to reach the finals. Meanwhile, Wizard upset the 4th seed (unlisted/unattached) 15-9 in the round of 16, the 5th seed from Los Angeles International Fencing Center 15-8 in the table of 8, and the 9th seed from BHFC 15-8 in the semis. The finals were a hard-fought 15-13 bout between the two Ace regulars, with Eric coming out on top. These results qualified both to compete at the Division 2 National Championships in July, and Wizard earned his "E26" rating. Congrats to both gentlemen!🤺

In the Y14 age group, Wizard went undefeated on the day. With a 4-0 pool record, he seeded 1st in direct elimination and earned a bye through the table of 16. He went 15-9 over his opponent from LAIFC, 15-12 over an athlete from ValorUSA, and 15-10 in the finals against a fencer from Swords Fencing Studio to take home the gold and qualify for the Y14 National Championships.  🤺

Mason Lee earned first place for the U17 age group at the USAPentathlon Multisport National Invitational held March 21st, in Charlotte, North Carolina--aided by some superb epee fencing. The epee portion was fenced in a round-robin that included the senior men as well. With a 15-4 win record, Mason not only finished first among the U17 age group, but second overall in the epee discipline, including the senior men. He has been selected to represent the United States in the U17 age group at the Pentathlon World Championships, to be held this summer in Lithuania. Way to go! 🤺

Epee fencing is one of the five disciplines from which Pentathlon derives its name, a sport first introduced to the Olympic Games by the founder of the modern Olympics, Baron Pierre de Coubertin at the 1912 Stockholm Games. Pentathlon is meant to simulate the trials a cavalry officer might face behind enemy lines, although those challenges have recently been updated. The original five events included: running, swimming, horseback riding, pistol shooting and one-touch epee fencing. As of late, horseback riding has been replaced by an obstacle course, and one-touch epee has been modified to five-touch bouts in one minute or less. Why not saber fencing for a cavalry soldier? Epee was substituted as a nod to Coubertin's home country of France, where epee was (and many argue still is) the predominant fencing discipline.

Congratulations to Ace fencer Wizard Toussaint, who took all-around gold for the '25-'26 season in the SoCal Scholastic League Middle School Men's Epee. After a gold medal-winning performance at the first event back in November, he finished with the silver on 2/7 at Chaminade High School. 🤺🥇

In this latest contest, Wizard took a wrecking ball to his pool, going 6-0 (+20 indicator!) to seed second in direct elimination and get a bye to the table of 32. He defeated his first opponent from Beverly Vista 15-3, his second opponent from Chaminade 15-8, his third opponent from Brentwood 15-9, and his fourth opponent representing Crossroads 14-13 to make the finals, a very tight 14-15 bout. 🤺🥈

This silver medal, combined with his previous gold back in November, earned Wizard the gold medal overall for the season. Way to go! 🤺

Chloe Kane took bronze in Division 2 Women's Epee at the Battle Born Regional Open Circuit contested January 31-February 1st in Las Vegas, Nevada. She fenced a solid 4-2 pool to seed 15th in direct elimination and get a bye through the table of 64. She went 15-8 over the 18th seed from San Francisco Fencing Academy, then upset the #2 seed from Encinitas Fencing Academy 15-8, and the #10 seed from LAIFC 15-10 to reach the semis and earn bronze. 🤺🥉

Chloe also fenced well in the Division 1A and Junior events at the same tournament, finishing just out of the medals in 10th place and 11th place respectively. 🤺

Chloe Kane earned bronze at the second SoCal Scholastic League High School tournament of the school year, held 1/25 at Brentwood High School. She fenced a perfect 6-0 pool (with an outstanding +24 indicator!) to seed first in direct elimination out of 51 competitors. Chloe got a bye through the round of 64, then went 15-2 over her opponent from University Preparatory School, 15-6 over an athlete from Harvard-Westlake, and 15-9 over a fencer from Immaculate Heart.

In addition to tournament medals, the SoCal Scholastic League awards high school medals to the top eight finishers using the combined results of two tournaments held throughout the season. Chloe earned silver at the first event back in October, so came away tied for second place overall for the '25-'26 season. 🤺