Advance and attack

With only three minutes to get the required touches needed in order to win her fencing match, sophomore Sarah Dzielinski goes into her fencing competitions with a positive attitude. Watching her opponent’s techniques, she prepares herself for her turn. 

Starting at a young age, Dzielinski focused on the foil and epee styles of fencing. 

“My mom signed me up for it when I was younger because she always wanted to do it, but she couldn’t…so she put me into it and I’ve just been doing it since then,” Dzielinski said. 

Training through the Edge of American Fencing, Dzienlinski works on her footwork, along with helping the beginner’s class. 

“We have a 30 minute overlap [with] the beginners class, so we fence them and help them where we can just so they can get extra practice in and so can we,” Dzielinski said.  “We normally do footwork or learn a new motion or just review something.” 

With competitions normally about 30-45 minutes away, Dzielinski luckily doesn’t have to travel far. However, one competition called the Pirates Olympics is held in Charleston annually, and tends to bring in people from all over the state. 

“The Pirates Olympics…is one of the first competitions I’ve done and I’ve done it multiple times…because it’s always a good experience. There’s a lot of people and you get to fence new people,” Dzielinski said. 

The goal and idea of fencing is very different compared to other sports. With time ticking away, Dzielinski has a small window in order to score the points she needs. 

“Each bout is about… three minutes and if you don’t get the needed touches in there, then you get a minute break and another three minute bout,” Dzielinski said. “You normally only have about three of those tops… it goes by really quick.” 

Isa Scott has been teammates with Dzielinski for a few years now. Scott said that in the recent years they’ve grown closer and she’s noticed how much work Dzielinski has put into fencing. 

“Sarah is a really really hard worker. She takes it very very seriously. She’s really great at what she does,” Scott said. 

With all the hard work that she has watched her teammate put in, Scott hopes that Dzielinski can continue to grow with her fencing skills. 

“She has a try, fail, do it again till [you] get it right method, which I really appreciate and she’s really good at it.”