I'm going to Portland for the week of Feb 18-23, to train at the Northwest Fencing Center. I know several of the fencers out there, and I'm looking forward to both training with them and getting lessons from Michael Marx.

I'm also hoping to bring back all kinds of things to work on between now and Div 1 Nationals in April.

I did exactly as well here as in Richmond. 3-3 in pools, seeded 100th, won my first DE, had to fence way up the bracket and got beat. Out in the 128 again.

I really have to concentrate on doing well in pools, and that will have to start from the very beginning of the first bout. That will have to be a point of emphasis at Div 1 Nationals in Portland, too.

That having been said, I did exactly what I wanted to in the first DE, against Josh Silver from NWFC. I also fenced pretty well against Ben Wieder in the 128, but lost 15-10.

I realized that I'd said Jason had pointed out a flaw in the Neutral Point Position thing. And that I hadn't talked about what the flaw had been.

He had realized that he could attack my weapon shoulder very effectively, because I seemed to be ignoring the fact that it existed. Especially, he said, if he could get my tip moving down or sideways at all, I could never get it going upward quickly enough.

This was a huge NAC - 237 entrants in Div 1 Men's Epee. I warmed up well, and felt pretty good going into the pools. I wasn't extremely sharp, though - not like Remenyik - and it showed.

I didn't do as well in my pools as I know I could have, and that definitely hurt my chances in the DE's. I went 3-3(+2) in a pool that was not as murderous as many others I saw. I feel like I would have been 5-1 or even 6-0. (Jacob Osbourne was fencing very well, though; 6-0 would have been awfully tough, but I think I could have done it.)

WOW what a day!

This was the largest Remenyik ever, with 117 fencers in the Mixed Epee. It was an A4 for (I think) the third year in a row. It might have been even larger, but several women dropped out to do only the Women's event (with 55, it was an A2!).

This is late, but I wanted to put a note up about the Purdue Open. I had a strange day - I fenced well in the pools, and I fenced well in the DE's. I just ran into a guy who dropped some pool bouts he shouldn't have. So I saw him in an early round (16), rather than the semifinal or final.

He was fencing extremely well, and jumped out to a big lead early. I figured out how to be effective against him, and started to claw my way back, but he had too big a lead. All in all, I'm pleased with how I fenced - I just had an odd draw in the DE's.