February 2026 NAC Day 1 Recap: Staying Focused, One Touch at a Time
Published
The February 2026 North American Cup opened in Cincinnati with fifteen national titles decided on Day 1, across junior, Division I and veteran events.
The February 2026 North American Cup opened in Cincinnati with fifteen national titles decided on Day 1, across junior, Division I and veteran events.
Junior and Division I champions
- Junior Men's Épée — Daniel Chirashnya (Academy of Fencing Masters (AFM))
- Division I Women's Saber — Sophia Kovacs (Tar Heel Fencing Academy LLC)
- Division I Women's Foil — Lee Kiefer (Bluegrass Fencers' Club)
Veteran champions
- Vet-40 Men's Foil — Stephen Jan (Metropolitan NYC)
- Vet-40 Women's Épée — Dayana C. Martinez Hansen (Wasatch Fencing & Valkyrie Fencing Club)
- Vet-50 Men's Foil — Rafael Suarez (Masters Fencing Club)
- Vet-50 Women's Épée — Leslie Marx (Marx Fencing Academy)
- Vet-60 Men's Foil — Paul Epply-Schmidt (Bucks County Academy of Fencing & Sebastiani Fencing Academy)
- Vet-60 Women's Épée — Jeannine Prokop (Nova Fencing Club)
- Vet-70 Men's Foil — Henri J. Darricau Oly (Denver Fencing Center)
- Vet-70 Women's Épée — Charlotta Bowie (DC Fencers Club & Modern Duelists Fencing Academy)
- Vet-80 Men's Foil — Adrian Sessions (Bay Area Fencing Club & the Fencing Center)
- Vet-80 Women's Épée — Erica Julien (Forge Fencing Teams)
- Veteran Women's Foil — Julie Seal (Valkyrie Fencing Club)
- Veteran Men's Saber — Franklin Rea (Boston Fencing Club)
A return after two years out
Paul Epply-Schmidt's Vet-60 Men's Foil gold came after two years away from competition due to injury. Returning to a national event after that long a gap and winning it is a useful counterweight to the idea that a season missed is a career derailed.
Saber results on Day 1
Sophia Kovacs won Division I Women's Saber and Franklin Rea took Veteran Men's Saber — a senior-level national title and a veteran title on the same day. Division I is the deepest domestic bracket, open to fencers with the required national points, and Women's Saber routinely draws international-level competitors.
What Day 1 tells a new family
Fifteen finals in one day, spanning ages from juniors to Vet-80, is a fair picture of how broad USA Fencing's national calendar really is. A fencer who starts at a club this season can have a realistic local and regional competition plan within a year, and the national events are there when the results support it.
Related reading on Saber Nation
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Official USA Fencing source: February NAC 2026 Day 1 Recap: Staying Focused, One Touch at a Time — published February 12, 2026.
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