Rangel-Friedman Leads Fencing At Junior North American Cup

Friday, January 18

Louisville, Kent.

All Day

Temple University

January NAC - U-20 Event

Photo by: Mitchell Leff

Rangel-Friedman Leads Fencing At Junior North American Cup

1.21.13 | Women's Fencing

LOUISVILLE, Ky.-- Five Owls made the trip to Louisville to participate in USA Fencing's North American Cup tournament this past weekend. The tournament, limited to athletes under the age of 20, attracted over 2,700 entries from around the country and is one of four national tournaments that award selection points to determine which athletes will form Team USA at the upcoming Junior World Championships.

On Friday, freshmen Fatima Largaespada and Demi Antipas competed in Junior Women's Foil, placing 37th and 67th, respectively, in a field of 144 competitors.

Saturday saw the lone epeeist for the Cherry and White compete, as freshman Jessica Hall took 58th of 175 competitors in Junior Women's Epee. Competition concluded with Junior Women's Sabre on Sunday, featuring freshman Petra Khan and sophomore Lauren Rangel-Friedman.

In a field of 113, Khan finished in 64th place, while Rangel-Friedman turned in the top result of the weekend for the Owls, advancing through three rounds of direct elimination to make the semi-finals and finish 16th.

"Overall, we struggled a bit this weekend being consistent," assistant coach Bradley Baker said. "In some bouts we performed exceptionally well, dominating from the start, while others, which were manageable, got away from us. The brightest note has to be seeing Lauren [Rangel-Friedman] put together an excellent result after a rough start. She had trouble getting going in the morning, but once her actions were working well, she strung together a number of quality wins. It really highlighted the resiliency we've come to know and expect from her and the rest of the team."

Coach Franke said that, "although the competition was very strong this weekend, I hope our fencers learned that they are competitive at this high level. We must not only gain confidence in our abilities and continue to work hard, but we must be sure to learn from every competition and use what we learn to get better.”

Temple returns to competition this coming Saturday, hosting a 10-school multi-meet at the Student Pavilion. Fencing is scheduled to begin at 8:30am and will continue throughout day.