We've got Becca & Thatcher visiting from Fargo this weekend because Thatcher has two fencing tournaments here in the Cities. The first one was today and he did really well! Out of 35 fencers age 13-18 he was seeded in 16th place after the qualification rounds. Then they moved into a single elimination bracket and he crushed his first opponent. (Score was 15-4) Alas, his next match pitted him against the #1 seed in the tourney.
T lost that match, but did get a few hits in. This is super impressive because he was waaaaaaay outmatched.
~ The other guy was 18 yrs old, to T's 13
~ The other guy was a good foot taller
~ The other guy's probably been fencing for years (T's only been doing it for a year now)
~ The other guy has had tournament experience
~ The other guy is his team's captain
~ and the other guy freaking qualified for the National Junior Olympics Fencing last year
So, it was pretty much a given that Thatcher wasn't going to win that match but just getting any hits in was something. Also, both his opponent and his opponent's coach came up afterwards and told him how well they thought he'd done.

Here's a picture of Thatcher in one of the first rounds:
https://p.twimg.com/AikORVMCMAEyZFu.jpg:large



A lot of the people had cool colorful or striped socks. If Thatcher hadn't had boring white socks he would have probably won.

We haven't convinced him yet that he needs to yell "There can be only one!" at the end of each match.

Also, I declared that when we left we would be following "Austin rules." This meant that when we got home we would all get to take a nap!