En garde!

Portland State is set to host the Valhalla Épée Invitational fencing tournament on Saturday at the Academic and Student Recreation Center. Fencers from the University of Oregon and Lower Columbia College will join the Portland State Fencing Club for the épée-style dual.

In épée-style fencing, unlike foil or sabre style, participants use a heavier weapon and the entire body counts as a target. As a thrusting weapon, the épée has a stiffer blade that is V-shaped in cross-section, has a larger bell guard and is heavier than a foil.

All standard procedures for fencing competitions will apply for the tournament. The fencers will be split into pools based on previous tournament results, and each individual competes with everyone else in the pool. The bouts go to five touches and have a time limit of three minutes. The pools determine the seeding for the direct-elimination brackets, where bouts will be fenced to fifteen touches and will again be limited to three minutes.

The Valhalla Invitational will mark the first time that Portland State will host a fencing tournament, and members of the Fencing Club are excited to put their skills to the test at home. They also take pride in working through the challenges of organizing their own tournament.

“Tournaments are a great chance to fence other people,” club member Todd Young said. “Épéeists in our club are stuck fencing the same seven or so people all the time, so we get to know each other’s styles to a certain extent. I look forward to fencing épéeists from outside our club and seeing how I can do against them.”

In the Gryphon Cup held in 2009 at Reed College, the PSU club won the foil event and came second in the sabre-style duel.

In another competition, sponsored by Lower Columbia College and held at Beaverton’s Northwest Fencing Center, the club won the team trophy. Club president Jenny Grant won the foil event, and Young finished third.

“Everybody’s really upping their game and I think we can do pretty well. We’ve got really cool team and individual trophies and medals being made for this event. I think we all want to see them stay at PSU,” Young said.

For Valhalla, extra safety measures have been put in place to prevent any accidents.

“We follow all United States Fencing Association regulations in regard to safety,” Young said. “Anywhere we feel they lapse, we make up for it in our club’s Code of Conduct.”

Protective gear for the event includes fencing pants (knickers) and underarm protectors, also known as the plastron. A jacket is worn on top of that and the gear also includes a glove worn over the weapon hand and a mask over the head.

CPR-trained safety officers will be on standby for the event and the ASRC is prepared in case something goes wrong, but club members insist that while welts, cuts and bruises may be common, life-threatening accidents are rare.

The Fencing club practices in room 440 at the ASRC from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Tuesdays and 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Fridays. The Valhalla Invitational will begin at 11 a.m. in rooms 440 and 441 of the ASRC.