Fencing club’s winning streak forced to end

Practices, national tournament canceled due to coronavirus outbreak

After strong showings in regional
competitions, UTD’s Fencing Club was looking forward to making a comeback at
nationals until it was canceled due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The 
United States Associate of Collegiate Fencing Clubs Nationals is the
world’s largest collegiate  fencing
tournament. It was supposed to be held in West Springfield, Massachusetts on
April 4-5, but has since been postponed to April 10-11 of next year   due to COVID-19. While there aren’t any
formal qualifying rounds to get to nationals, the team had a strong showing in
the regional circuit Southwest Intercollegiate Fencing Association last
semester.

“We were planning to go this year because we
had a stronger funding plan and better organization,” club president and
mechanical engineering senior Ben Weldon said. “Last semester we won both of
the first two SWIFA tournaments and a number of us had strong showings at
individual tournaments run by USFA, the national fencing organization. This
definitely contributed to our decision to go since we were outperforming UT,
who placed highly last year.”

Weldon has been fencing since the beginning of
his freshman year. He had briefly tried fencing in middle school but had
stopped until his interest was rekindled in college.

“As a graduating senior, I’m very disappointed
to have the rest of our season cancelled, but I definitely understand the need
to do so. I was looking forward to traveling with the team to our first
nationals in many years,” Weldon said. “I just hope that we can get everything
back on track so the team can compete on the same level or better in the
future.”

Computer science sophomore Michael Menjivar
joined the fencing club last semester with no prior experience. He quickly
picked up the basics and competed in state tournaments and was one of the 11
students, along with Weldon, who qualified for nationals.

As part of the university response to
COVID-19, all club activities have been cancelled, but Menjivar said he plans
to head back to practice as soon as club activities resume. He said he plans on
fencing for the rest of his undergraduate career.  Menjivar said he had an interest in fencing,
but never tried it until the opportunity presented itself at UTD.

“I’ve never really been the sporty type. I did
cross-country for half a semester once in high school and I quit because I
didn’t like it,” Menjivar said. “I’ve always kind of wanted to try fencing, but
I didn’t know where to start. Then I came to the club fair and someone from the
fencing booth just attacked me . They were like, ‘Hey, you should join.’ So I
just joined and I guess it clicked.” 

Menjivar’s experience is not so different from
the other roughly 45 fencers in the club. He said that many students don’t know
about the club until club fairs or demonstrations around campus.

The team practiced on Mondays and Thursdays
from 10 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. and Saturday from 3-5 p.m. in the Auxiliary Gym  located in the Activity Center. Their regimen
consists of warm up exercises, footwork drills, bladework drills and fencing.

“The most important thing is that everybody’s
just enjoying the sport. So this year, I guess we had a little bit more of a
competitive push because now we’re trying to send a team to nationals, but
still.” Weldon said. “I mean, anybody can go there, it was really just based on
interest and trying to go have fun.”

While Menjivar has been able to learn how to
fence, he said he’s also found a sense of community and friendship within the
club with other students he might not have had he not joined. He said he
encourages others who are interested in the sport to give it a try.

“All of my friends I’ve made so far have been
from fencing,” Menjivar said. “You don’t really have anything to lose (by
joining). There’s no required practice. You show up when you can, so it’s just
like, come have fun.”