Hello fencing faithful. The votes are in! We have a new list of officers and the last few award winners for the year, so let's jump straight to it!

Let's start off with our illustrious officers for the 08/09 season.

President: Sarah Kiel
Vice President: Sara Bowers
Treasurer: Chris Walsh
Secretary: Becky Piasecki
Recruiter: Josh Castle
Men's Captain: Justin Schaudt
Women's Captain: Kara Zdenek
Webmaster: Ryan Wagoner
Co-Webmaster: Josh Castle

Awards for the 07/08 season!

Captain's Pin Winners: Nick Piontek & Shaina Selbig
MVP: Nick Piontek & Sara Bowers
Most Improved: Nick Piontek and a tie between Meg Holt & Sarah Kiel
Rookie of the Year: Jake Rathbun & Alandra Greenlee
Winning the very sought after Gargoyle: Justin Schaudt

The site's seen some changes to match the club. We've taken it to the new season so be ready for next year! Finally the photos from the alumni tournament are up, so check it out!

This past weekend your spartan fencers traveled all the way to Smith College, in the great state of Massachusetts. After a 15 hour bus ride the team was ready to fence. Starting off strong in the pools, every squad finished higher than thier initial seating, with five of the six squads moving on to the round of 16.

The men's team placed 15th overall:
Men's Epee placed 11th.
Men's Sabre placed 13th.
Men's Foil placed 20th

The women's team placed 6th overall:
Women's Epee placed 6th
Women's Sabre placed 9th
Women's Foil placed 14th

Congratulations goes out to Meg Holt who went undefeated on saturday, to make the individual competitions, placing in the top 16 women's sabre fencers in the nation!

A special congratulations goes out to Paul Steiner and Aggie Steiner who announced this weekend that they will be having a baby! The couple will be taking a maternity leave from the club indefinitely. There will always be a place for you at the MSU Fencing Club.

As a whole MSU placed 9th in the nation, thanks to the dedication and hard work of all it's members and supporters.

Finally the club would like to say thank you.

To our coaches, who donate thier time to teach and support us, thank you. Without you we never would have gotten as far as we did. So thank you for the training, for the long car rides to tournaments, putting up with the cheap hotels, sacrificing your weekends, getting up at early hours when you could be sleeping in. Thank you for being at tournaments, telling us what we didn't want to hear, and always forcing us to give all we had. You put up with everything just because of your love of the sport and the club. Paul and Aggie we wish you the best of luck in the future and want you to know you will be missed. Best of luck to the three of you.

To all our members. Whether you travel or not you are the lifeblood of this team. It's through your sweat and effort that we are able to keep going as a club. For some of you this was your last tournament as a part of this team, we hope you enjoyed your experiences with us and will keep on fencing in the future. You've graduated but that doesn't mean we'll stop trying to surpass you!

And finally to you! Our loyal fans and supporters. Whether you're alumni, family, or just plain awesome, the effort we put into every tournament is inspired by you. Keep on cheering and we'll keep on doing our best!

Now just because the season is over don't think we'll be taking it easy. Less competition means more time for us to work on the site, and there'll always be USFA tournaments to keep the team busy. We're going to strive to become even better so you have a reason to keep on cheering for MSU!

Till Next Time,
Josh and Ryan
~The Webmasters

The club would like to congratulate Meg Holt and Nick Piontek on thier showings at the Excalibur open this weekend.

Meg Holt took the silver in women's saber.

Nick Piontek took the bronze in mixed saber.

Congrats again Meg and Nick! Let's take these wins all the way to nationals!

As promised, the site is being updated daily till we catch up. The first of three photo galleries is up in the photos section. This massive album is our biggest to date! It holds 34 photos telling the story of our hard fought battles at the Notre Dame Duels 08.

Enjoy and look forward to many more updates as the days go by.

Consistently Yours,
The Webbies

First off, we'd like to apologize for the delay in this post. We're going to do a large update here in the coming days. A college student's schedule can be quite hectic, but we're back, and we'll be updating regularly from now on.

Check below for some news.

Thanks,
The Webmasters

On March 16th, the current MSU fencing club hosted former Spartan fencers in the annual alumni tournament. Former fencers, some who competed for MSU as far back as the 1970's, joined us for a day of fencing and camaraderie. The tournament entailed the current MSU squad taking on the alumni from their weapon in a team-based event. The alumni proved that they still had plenty of skills, edging out the current fencers in all three weapons. Attendance included fewer than five former and current MSU coaches, including MSU's last varsity coach, Fred Freiheit.

We all hope that the alumni enjoyed their experience, and would like to thank them for their kind donations to the club. We're also looking forward to seeing them all return next year.

MSU competed in the conference championship tournament on the 23rd and 24th of February, hosted at Notre Dame. Michigan State placed 7th in a tough field of 20 conference teams, which included a mix of varsity and club. Every squad fenced their best and all contributed. Full results on the results page soon.

MSU Valentine Fencers Get Hit On

MSU Fencers who skipped practice on Valentines day missed a rare visit and opportunity to fence with Dale Walter, MSU varsity saber fencing alumni and 2000-2003 MSU fencing head coach.

Dale's visit was inspired by a letter the club sent out recently to advertise the alumni meet.

Dale did warm-ups and mirroring with the club then worked with the saber squad for 2.5 hours.

Our saber fencers must have captured his heart because I heard Dale plans to return in the weeks to come.

Dale is a true renaissance man who currently heads up the famous "Knights of Iron, Stage Combat Team" and organizes various renaissance festivals. Check him out at www.knightsofiron.com

~Coach Oberg
www.msu.edu/~oberg

Hello one and all! Just a quick update to tell you what's new on your favorite site! Our top story is the minutes from the officer's meetings will be posted in the members only section, which with any luck will finally get password protection soon. The downloads page is now playing host to desktop wallpapers, so you can show off your team spirit. The site is always changing so check back all the time for the latest updates!

Don't forget, on March 1st, we'll be hosting our Spring USFA tournament at Salle d'Etroit. Located in scenic Livonia, MI. And secondly on March 16th we'll be hosting the MSU Alumni tournament at IM West, right here on campus.

Till next time, keep your calenders clear,
Josh and Ryan

The team traveled to frigid South Bend, IN, this weekend for the Notre Dame Duals. Michigan State fenced eight of the fifteen schools in attendance. The MSU women posted a 3-4 record (Bowling Green did not field a women's team) on the weekend. The women defeated Purdue, Cleveland State, and Detroit Mercy, and lost close bouts to Florida and Chicago.

The MSU men's squad went 3-5 in competion this weekend, defeating Bowling Green, Purdue, and Detroit. The men also lost a close bout to Chicago. Overall, the team did well for fencing four varsity schools and some of the best club schools in and out of the conference. With two weeks to prepare for the Midwest Conference Championships, the club is expecting that hard work will pay off with a good showing.

For full results, check the results page in a couple days.

Until then, Go Green! Go White! Go Fence!