The Blake School is proud to be one of the few high schools in Minnesota to offer the sport of fencing to our students. Blake’s fencing program is steeped in history—it has run continuously for over 40 years—and provides the student a unique experience in a sport that fosters engagement of the mind and body. There are three competitive weapons (foil, saber, and epee), and each have their own distinctive equipment, rules, and fencing styles that make them attractive to athletes with different personalities and characteristics.

The fencing team includes a mix of experienced fencers and students new to fencing, with close to 60 boys and girls from grades 7 through 12. Practices are held Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons in the Blake Upper School gym from mid-November through February. Transportation is provided from the Middle School to the Upper School before practice and back to the Middle School after practice. Most equipment is provided by the school. Daily practices consist of footwork, blade work, fencing games, and practice bouts using electric scoring boxes. The emphasis is on teaching fencers the technical and mental skills needed to plan strategy and tactics and to execute them properly in competition.

The team competes in numerous dual meets and tournaments, and the season concludes with the Minnesota High School State Fencing Championship (an individual tournament that also crowns team champions) and the Minnesota High School State Relay Fencing Championships (a team tournament using a relay format) on last weekend in February.

Although the team focuses much more on teaching skills and on individual improvement rather than competitive results, we are also proud of the success of our program. We have had a number of individual champions as well as overall team and single-weapon championships.

Boys’ Fencing
Overall State Champions
2012, 2022, 2023

Saber State Champions
1990, 2002, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023

Epee State Champions
2016

Foil State Champions
2012, 2013, 2014, 2022

Girls’ Fencing
Overall State Champions
2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2018, 2019, 2020

Saber State Champions
2004, 2012, 2013, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023

Epee State Champions
2012, 2014, 2020, 2022

Foil State Champions
2005, 2014, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022

Individual State Champions

Epee

2023 Evan Vezmar

Foil
1993 Ben Feldman
2014, 2015 Solomon Polansky
2018, 2019 Lola Chamberlain

Sabre
2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 Matt Stearns
2002, 2003, 2004 Alexa Weingarden

2013 Catherine Hua

2023 Sarah Hasday-Erbsen