Fencing is not an Olympic sport in winter, but every year in February the Junior Olympic National Championships are held and share that same spirit of intense competition.  

Fencers from the Rhode Island Fencing Academy & Club in East Providence, including some Barrington residents, made the trip to the Junior Olympics in Memphis, Tenn., for the four-day competition. 

Josef Cohen placed third in junior men’s sabre, a huge event with more than 250 total fencers. The bronze medal earned Joe a renewal of his “A” rating, the highest national rank available from the United Sates Fencing Association. 

Joe trained for years at RIFAC, where he remains a member, before moving on to attend Columbia University. He now fences with the Columbia University sabre team. Joe, with two of his Columbia sabre friends, competed in the junior sabre team event at the Junior Olympics and finished second out of 28 teams. 

The RIFAC ladies also competed in a team event, taking sixth in junior team women’s foil. Anika Breker from Barrington, Alexandra McDonald from Tiverton, and Julia Shalansky from Providence made up the foil team.  All three ladies hold “B” ratings.

RIFAC is a training facility which has earned a national reputation for youth development, producing both national and international medalists. Owner and head coach Alex Ripa, a Barrington resident, was elected national coach of the year in 2015 for his achievements in both mental and physical athlete training.  

The Junior Olympics showcases America’s most skilled and experienced fencers aged 20-years-old and under.  The tournament is organized into individual and team events by age group: cadet for athletes 16-years-old and under and junior for fencers 20-years-old and under. All participants must pre-qualify for the tournament with high-placed finishes at local competitions. 

Other competitions

Athletes from New England and the North Atlantic crowded the facilities at Rockland Community College in Suffern, NY, to fence in a recent combined regional youth and junior/cadet circuit tournament.  

Hundreds of skilled, experienced athletes vied for podium finishes, national points, and a qualifying pathway to Summer Nationals, the national championship for youth, cadet, and junior level fencers. 

Four girls from Barrington took home honors.  

Anna Saal picked up a bronze in cadet women’s epee, securing a trip to the medal podium and a new national rating of “D” replacing the “E” she held before. Anna also finished eighth in Y-14 women’s epee (for fencers aged 14-years-old and under) and eighth again in junior women’s epee.  

Erin Faucher captured bronze in junior women’s sabre, and Emma Mueller finished fifth in two events: Y-10 women’s epee and Y-12 women’s epee. Dasha Smuk grabbed a seventh-place finish in junior women’s epee, renewing her “E” rating for 2018.