Team USA Women take on Cairo
The 2nd half of the chase for Olympic qualification began in Cairo, Egypt for World Cup #1. Athletes from all continents came to earn valuable Olympic Ranking points. The women's Qualification kicked things off to start the week with three groups and the top 12 from each group advancing to the semifnals. Four Team USA athletes started today with the hopes of increasing their Olympic point total.
Madison Gonzalez, out of Group A, got the day started with the fencing event. She had a couple of good bouts but had difficulty stringing some victories together. She ended the fencing event with 166 points which put her in 25th place. The next event was swimming and Madison swam out of heat 3. She put together a strong swim, winning her heat in a time of 2:15.77. Her time was a new personal best and was the 2nd best time of her group. After two events, Madison was in 21st place heading into the laser run. Madison had a solid run and good shooting, including completing a shooting series in 8 seconds. Her time of 12:31 was the 14th fastest time of her group. She managed to stay right where she started, crossing the line in 21st place in overall in her group with a total score of 1004 points.
Group B saw Jessica Savner (Davis) competing. Swimming was the first event and Jessica was in heat one. She got a strong start and painted an even pace to finish in 2:29.91 and touched the wall in 2nd place for her heat. Her overall finish for the event was 22nd place with 251 points. Next up was the fencing event. Jessica stayed pretty even throughout the whole day, one victory shy of winning 50% of her bouts. Her score of 208 points put her in 17th place for the event and in 20th place overall heading into the laser run. Jessica had solid running but had one shooting series that was a little off from her normal time. Her time of 12:26 was the 19th fastest time in the group. A couple of athletes passed her, and Jessica finished in 22nd place in her group, scoring a total of 1013 points.
Phaelen French and Mary Zoldak competed together in the final group of the day, group C. Their day started with the swimming event. Both Phaelen and Mary swam their personal best times. Phaelen’s time of 2:36.19 put her in 25th place and Mary’s time of 3:03.01 put her in 27th place. Up next was the fencing event. Mary had some good hits against strong opponents, ending the event with 187 points and 24th place overall in the fence. Phaelen had difficulty getting going but managed to get victories on two Olympians. Her score of 159 points put her in 27th place for the event. Going into the laser run, Phaelen started in 26th place and Mary started in 27th place. Phaelen had an exceptional laser run overall with a time of 12:00 and the 10th fastest of the group and she passed one athlete to finish in 25th place overall in the group, with a total score of 977. Mary had some difficulties with the shooting but her time of 14:52 kept her in the same place, finishing the day in 27th place overall in her group with a score of 779.
Coach Dennis