Amherst residents strike gold at tournament
Fencing

The Fencing Center of Buffalo held the third annual Hooves of Thunder Tournament on Saturday, April 19. Members for the open epee event, left photo, from left, are: Scott Seier (Williamsville, first place), Windalys Rodriguez (Buffalo, second place), Mike Licata (Getzville, third place); right

The Fencing Center of Buffalo held the third annual Hooves of Thunder Tournament on Saturday, April 19, and local competitors walked away with a majority of the medals.

Mike Licata of Getzville won the open foil event, Scott Seier of Williamsville won the open epee event, and Mike Doucette of Amherst won the Young Blades (ages 6-13) foil event. It was nearly as clean a sweep for Amherst fencers, as Larry Finklestein of East Amherst finished second in the open sabre event.

All four events were coed and featured fencers from all over Erie County.

Licata earned the third seed in the 18-person open foil event and cruised through the direct-elimination bouts. He topped 14th seed Ben Karas, 15-2, 11th-seed Mike Kugel, 15-6, second seed Matt Krueger, 15-9, and first seed Sebastian Augustine, 15-7. Augustine took the silver medal, while Krueger won the bronze with a 15-13 victory over Tom Ciminelli.

photo - Young Blades foil event, from left - Mike Doucette (Amherst, first place), Noah Tobias (Williamsville, tied for third), Armen Soukiazian (Tonawanda, tied for third) and Julian Druar (Snyder, second place).

Seier also won from the third seed in the open epee even. He bested sixth-seed Victoria Licata, 15-3, second-seed Kugel, 15-12, and first-seed Windalys Rodriguez, 15-14. Rodriguez won the silver medal, while Mike Licata took the bronze with a 15-12 win over Kugel.

Doucette outlasted 19 opponents to claim the gold medal in the Young Blades group. He beat Snyder's Julian Druar in the final. Williamsville's Noah Tobias and Tonawanda's Armen Soukiazian tied for third.

Finkelstein was the first seed in the open sabre event but fell to second-seed Krueger, 15-12, in the final. He won the silver medal, while Seier earned the bronze with a 15-0 victory over Catherine Mucci.

The Fencing Center of Buffalo is located at 777 Maryvale Drive, Cheektowaga.