It's a B!

Grand Rapids - Tim finally earned his B rating! Tim loaded up his car with Wayne State fencers and took a road trip to the "Excalibur Open" at The West Michigan Fencing Academy in Grand Rapids today. The Excalibur is the biggest, highest rated fencing event of the year in the Michigan Division tournament schedule. Tim's coach Anatoli Senic won the gold medal. Craig Budzinski, from University of Detroit took second. Tim narrowly lost to Craig in the semifinals (12-15.)

Tim's teammate, Kuba Gibczynski, easily took the gold medal in Mixed Sabre.

Collegiate Bling

DETROIT - Jackson Fencing Club's Tim Mulligan picked up his first collegiate medal at the 2008 Istvan Danosi Michigan Open held on Dec. 6 at the Matthaei Building on the campus of Wayne State University. Seven schools participated including WSU, Michigan, Michigan State, University of Detroit-Mercy, Oberlin, the University of Chicago and the University of Western Ontario.

Tim defeated University of Detroit's Brad Coon to win the bronze medal in men's foil.

Tim's teammate Slava Zingerman , the two-time defending NCAA champion, won the men's epee defeating Michigan's Bill Kolodziej in the title bout.

Another teammate, sophomore Jakub Gibczynski was the men's saber champion for the second consecutive year. He claimed a title bout victory over University of Michigan's Vaughn Vargo-Alevras.

WSU foilist, and honorary JFC member, Mickey Ramlow took 5th place.

It was also great to see our friend Stephen Patrias from Chelsea. Stephen occassionally fences with us during the summer months. He was there with his team from the University of Chicago. Stephen took 4th place in men's saber.

Jonah Kusky - For the WIN!

LIVONIA - Jackson Fencing Club's most recently rated fencer is Jonah Kusky! Jonah traveled to Livonia to compete in (and WIN!) the Underground Fencing Organization's "Sunday Singles Foil Unclassified."

Coach Tim was there refereeing the event and he was so excited he called home immediately to report on Jonah's awesomeness! Alex Guenther and Jonah Kusky

Jonah earned a nice shiny new E rating to go along with his gold medal.

Coming up in December :

UFO is hosting the "Sidewalk Sale Youth and Novice" Tournament on December 7 at Salle` D'Etroit.

Liberty Lakes Fencing Club is hosting the"All I Want for Christmas is a Shiny New Medal" Youth Event on December 13 and the "Earn Yourself a Christmas D" Unclassified Foil and Epee on December 14.

JFC Goes to College I

Grand Valley State University: JFC Western Campus

Cal Peterson is at Grand Valley and fencing with their club. This year they have made an arrangement to fence at West Michigan Fencing Academy (WMFA), which is a very good idea. WMFA has a VERY nice facility. Last week Cal came home and fenced both foil and epee at Great Lakes Sword Club's D and Under event in Leslie. Cal said he isn't talking about foil, but he won a bronze medal in epee!That is really saying something, there were a lot of GLSC club members competing in the event, and they are a very strong epee club!

Cal will keep us posted about the goings on at JFC's western campus.

JFC Goes to College II

Wayne State University: JFC Eastern Campus

Those of you that have been fencing with our club when we were the sister club of Mid-Michigan Fencing Academy in Okemos may remember Mickey Ramlow from Midland. Mickey is a C rated fencer that used to come down to Okemos on Fridays and take private lessons with Mary and I. He was such a well liked friend of our club that he took to wearing one of our blue socks at tournaments. Well, on Tim's first day at school he was in the cafeteria getting dinner and Mickey walked up and said "hi!"

It turns out Mick's mom had a conversation with Tim at a tournament a few months ago and Tim told her that he was going to fence at WSU so she went home and said, "hey, why don't you go fence with Tim Mulligan at Wayne State this fall?"

The way I see it, JFC has one and a half members fencing for Wayne State this season. So, my scheme for world domination through the WSU fencing program is going as planned.

Bruce Davis - Wayne State Hall of Fame

Wayne State University

Hall Of Fame

Bruce P. Davis
Three year fencing letterman at WSU. From 1957-1979. Was NCAA individual foil champion in 1957 and 1958. Placed third in 1959 while becoming the Presidents Athletic Conference foil Champion. Nominated to the United States Olympic Foil Squad. Also competed at the State level, taking 2nd, 3rd,
or 4th each year In both foil and epee. Ranked second in the midwest in epee in 1955. Inducted into the hall of fame in 1980.

As most JFC members know by now, Tim Mulligan has gone off to Wayne State University where he is on the varsity fencing team and persuing a Political Science degree. Today he searched through the Hall of Fame in the athletic building to find this picture of our very own Bruce Davis. We are very lucky to have him as a coach, and are very proud to have him as a friend and mentor.

Fall Fencing To Begin Thursday, Sept 11

Fall classes begin this Thursday Sept 11. Both beginning and and advanced classes will meet at 7pm at Paragon Charter Academy. The beginning class teaches the fundamentals of footwork, blade work and tactics. The advanced fencers will be working on advanced footwork and tactics. The beginning and advanced classes will go until 8:30 each week, with Open fencing until 9pm..

All equipment for this class available for members that do not have thier own equipment. Students should wear sweat pants (no jeans), a T-shirt, and clean athletic shoes with laces.