6/14/09 So Cal Pre-Nationals Classic (D and over)

This all sabre tournament at Cal Tech drew 19 top level fencers.  Instead of the usual direct elimination bracket, the competitors fenced off for every place - that's a lot of fencing!  Amir Mohaymen Rahimi took 3rd, Travis took 8th and our own Michael D'Asaro took 10th.
 

5/10/09 Southern California Division Summer Nationals Qualifier

Andy took 2^nd place in the men’s Y14 sabre event in Thousand Oaks to qualify for competition at this summer’s fencing Nationals. 
 

4/24-25/09 NAC F, Portland

Several fencers from the Santa Barbara Fencing Academy traveled to Oregon for the final North American Cup event of the season.  The top Division 1 and youth fencers in the country were there competing, including several members of the 2008 men’s and women’s Olympic fencing teams.

Amir Rahimi improved from his initial seed of 83^rd to finish 20^th of 117 in the Division 1 men’s sabre event.  Rahimi earned national points and qualified to compete at the US Summer Nationals.  Travis also competed in Division 1, making the cut to advance to the elimination rounds and finishing 83^rd overall.  In Y14 women’s sabre, Kelly won her first elimination bout and finished 32^nd overall.

4/19/09 Southern California Division Summer Nationals Qualifier

Andy took 2^nd place in the men’s Cadet/U17 sabre event at Cal Tech.  He is now qualified to compete at the Cadet men’s sabre event at this summer’s fencing Nationals to be held in Dallas in July.

Margaret finished 17^th in the women’s Y14 epee event.
 

4/19/09 Orange Coast Open

Travis Tibbitts of the Santa Barbara Fencing Academy won the gold medal in the open sabre event at CSU Long Beach. 
 

4/12/09 Hangtown Sabre Open, Placerville

Amir  took 2^nd place in the Hangtown Sabre Open in Placerville and earned his B2009 rating.  The challenging field was limited to 20 fencers with ratings of D or better.  

04/04/09 Pacific Coast Championships

Travis beat Kaito Streets to take 3rd place in the Junior/U19 sabre event at the PCCs at CSU Long Beach.  He earned his C09 rating and qualified to compete at the Junior men’s sabre event at Nationals. He had previously qualified to also compete in the Cadet/U17 men’s sabre.

03/28-29/09 San Jose SYC/Paul Pesthy Memorial Tournament

In Y14 men's sabre, Andy won 3 of his pool bouts to finish 19th of 41. Robby fenced up and finished 39th.

In Y12 men's sabre, Robby won 3 of his pool bouts to finish 19th of 37.

03/08/09 Okawa Open

03/01/09 Central Coast D & Under Tournament

2/16/09  Junior Olympics, Albuquerque, NM

Travis and Andy made the trip to JOs to compete in the Cadet Men's sabre event.  Despite being seriously ill, Andy managed to get touches on all of his pool opponents, and finished 151th of 161 fencers.  Travis finished 45th in the event.
 

2/7/09  Linkmeyer Invitational

Travis finished 13th of 41 at USC.

1/25/2009  Orange Coast Open

Travis finished 10th and Kelly finished 20th at the mixed sabre event at the Orange Coast Open tournament at CSULB. 

1/24/2009  Los Alamitos 

Madeleine finished in 5^th place in the Y12 women’s sabre event at the Regional Youth Circuit tournament in Los Alamitos.  She is now qualified to fence in the USFA Summer Nationals this summer in Dallas, Texas.  Congratulations!

1/19/2009   UCSB D & Under

There was an excellent turn out for this local tournament for fencers with D ratings and under.  In mixed sabre, Andy fenced well in his pool and earned the #7 seed for the elimination bracket, finishing 11^th in the field of 25 fencers.  Kelly also competed in sabre, finishing 20^th.  Special congratulations go to our own Jeff Ervin who won the event, and Matt Kuiken who finished 3rd. 

Mark Karasek finished 15^th in the mixed epee event.  Theresa Karasek finished 39^th.

1/15-19, 2009  US Fencing North American Cup, Louisville, KY

Travis fenced in the Junior men’s sabre event on Friday. He was seeded #78 of 113 fencers, and 91 would make the cut to the elimination bracket.  He started out strong and did really well in his pool. He had 2 As, 2 Bs, 1 C and 1 E in his pool, with 3 of them on the US international teams.  Travis, a C-rated fencer, beat an A, a B and the E to advance to the DEs.

He was seeded #52 for the DEs, a great improvement from 78.  His first DE bout was against an A-rated fencer who had happened to do poorly in the pools, and was a bit motivated.  The fencer also had points as a cadet (#9) and junior (#37). Travis held his own in the first half and it was 7–8 at the break, but lost 10-15.  Travis feels like he should have been able to beat the guy, but he said he just didn’t fence well in the second half.  He finished in 69th place.

On Sunday, he fenced in Division 1 sabre, in a field that included one of the members of the 2008 US Olympic team, Jason Rogers.  There were 141 fencers, and 106 would make the cut to the elimination bracket.  He was initially seeded #113, with 3 As, 2 Bs and 1 other C in his pool.  He won 2 bouts of the 6, which was enough to make the cut. 

1/11/2009, Scholastic Fencing League, Brentwood High School

Kelly Tibbitts, a 7^th grader at La Colina Junior High, won 2^nd place in the middle school sabre event at the Southern California Scholastic Fencing League tournament.  Andy Granatelli, in 8^th grade at Marymount, finished in 3^rd place.  Robbie Granatelli, a 6^th grader at Marymount, finished in 5^th place.  Charlie Haslem, in 7^th grade at Santa Barbara Junior High, finished in 7^th place.

Travis Tibbitts, a freshman at San Marcos High School, won 3^rd place in the men’s high school sabre event.  This series of tournaments draws almost 500 middle school and high school fencers from across Southern California to represent their schools in foil, epee and sabre events.

12/20/2008  Junior Olympic Qualifier - Cadet, Monroe HS

Andy came roaring back from the flu to finish in 3rd place at the cadet sabre event to qualify for the Junior Olympics.  He and Travis (who had qualified previously) will be travelling to Albuquerque, New Mexico over President's weekend in February to compete against the best U17 sabre fencers in the country.  Wish them luck!

12/7  Junior Olympic Qualifier - Junior, SBCC

Our SBFA fencers were disappointed not to qualify for the Junior U20 age group for sabre at this year's Junior Olympics. Travis finished in 4th place, with a heartbreaker 14-15 touch defeat.  Andy was fighting the flu and failed to make the cut.  Kelly (again the youngest competitor) finished in 4th place in the women's event.  On the bright side, at least they didn't have far to drive, and our fencers were well supported by friends and family who finally got to see some very competitive fencing at a local venue.
 

11/29  Toys for Tots Charity Fencing Tournament, Newbury Park

Travis finished in 1^st place in the Open mixed sabre event, narrowly beating Jeff Ervin with a final score of 15 - 12.   He won a BBQ utensil shaped like a sabre!  Kelly won her first DE against a rated fencer to make it into the top eight, only to lose to an older experienced fencer who went on to finish in 4th.  Kelly finished in 8^th place and Andy finished 10^th.  The tournament drew almost 50 fencers who donated toys to benefit the local Toys for Tots drive. 
 

11/7-10 The North American Cup, St. Louis, Mo

Travis finished in 31^st place of 127 fencers in the Cadet U17 men’s sabre event, the highest placing Californian in the event.  His second direct elimination bout went down to the wire against a B-rated Canadian fencer.  After being behind 6 – 8 at the break, he roared back to tie the bout at 14 and then won on a single-light touch.  By finishing in the top 32, he earned more National points and improved his USFA ranking.  Travis also competed in the Junior U20 men’s sabre, finishing 110^th of 182 fencers. 

Other traveling fencers in St. Louis included Andy, who finished 115th in the cadet sabre, and 54^th of 74 fencers in the Y14 men’s sabre.  Robby, the youngest by far in the field, finished 74^th in the Y14 event.   Kelly was also one of the youngest in her event,  finishing 29^th of 39 fencers in her first Y14 NAC.  She came from behind at 5 – 8 at the break to win her first direct elimination bout at 15 – 11.

11/02 The Stro Memorial

Nine SBFA fencers competed at the annual tournament held in honor of Coach Michael's father, the original 'Maestro'.  Travis won the beautiful marble obelisk trophy for 1st place in the men's open sabre.  Kelly won the crystal trophy for second place in the women's open sabre, finishing 8th overall in the mixed field.  Andy finished 14th in the open sabre, but roared back in the Y14 mixed sabre to win the bronze.  Madeleine took 10th, Charlie took 11th, Robbie took 13th and Chris took 14th, to complete an excellent showing for SBFA in the sabre events.  Chet finished 13th in the Y14 men's epee, and Maria finished 25th in the open mixed epee.
 

10/19  SoCal Youth Challenge

Robby and Andy competed in Pasadena at the first So Cal Youth Challenge sabre event of the season.  Robby finished 5th in the Y12 event, and 7^th in the Y14 event.  Andy fenced well in his Y14 pool bouts and advanced to the finals.  He lost the gold medal by one touch in the final bout but won the silver in his best finish of the season.
 

10/11/08  The North American Cup

Travis traveled to Columbus, Ohio for the US Fencing Association North American Cup.  He competed in the Cadet/U17 men’s sabre event with 130 of the best young fencers in the country.  He finished in 28th place to become nationally ranked as a Cadet.  His high finish also qualified him to compete at the Junior Olympics in January and at the Summer Nationals. 
 
Riley also fenced at the NAC in the Division 3 foil event.  He finished a very respectable 66th of 105 fencers.
 

10/12/08  The Central Coast Open

Andy Granatelli blazed through his pool bouts to a 10^th place finish in the sabre event at Cal Poly SLO.  Kelly Tibbitts, the youngest fencer in the event, finished 15^th of 20 fencers.
 

10/4/08  The Couturier Open

Travis finished in 3^rd place of 21 fencers at the prestigious Couturier Open mixed sabre event, winning one of the coveted daggers as a prize.  Andy finished 20^th in the event.  Riley fenced in the mixed foil event, finishing 21^st of 24 fencers.

10/5/08  The San Diego Fencing Center Challenge

Charlie fenced extremely well in the Y14 mixed sabre, finishing 10^th of 20 fencers in the first RYC of the season.

8/24/08 The Torrey Challenge

Robby and Andy did some sabre fencing in La Jolla at the first tournament of the season.  Andy finished 5th of 9 fencers in the Junior (U20) event, and also fenced in the Y14 finishing 16th of 20.  Robby fenced in the Y12 (5th of 7) and Y14 (18th of 20).
 

8/31/08  The LA International Fencing Center Invitational

Several SBFA students competed at the LAIFC Invitational last weekend.  Kelly, fencing in her first Open tournament, finished 5^th of 6 in the women’s sabre, which was won by Sandra D'Asaro.  In the men’s sabre, Travis tied for 3^rd place with Ken Coleman of the UCSB Fencing Club, with both fencers earning their ‘C’ rating.  Andy finished 13^th in the event, despite having the toughest pool in the group and then fencing against Travis in their first DE.  Travis battled through his second DE only to face the top B-rated fencer who ultimately won the event.