Junior Epée Men’s Alliance Medalists (from L: Simon Lioznyansky, Stewart Lee, Caleb Eskridge)
Students from local fencing club Alliance Fencing Academy recently brought home 15 medals from the largest fencing tournament in the world this summer, more than any other club. The USA Fencing Summer Nationals was held June 28 -July 7, 2025 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Over 6,100 fencers representing over 150 clubs and 18 countries competed at Summer Nationals.
Alliance Fencing Academy recently opened a new facility in Katy, with 7,500 sq ft including 11 fencing strips. The club shares students and coaches with its other two locations in Houston and The Woodlands.
Ninety-seven fencers from Alliance Fencing Academy qualified to attend the championship. Alliance fencers brought home 15 medals, including 2 Gold medals, 2 Silver medals, 3 Bronze medals and another 8 top-8 medals. Katy resident Stewart Lee earned a Gold medal in the Senior Men’s Epee Team event where the Alliance Team beat out 67 other teams. Steward also garnered an 8th place medal in Junior Men’s Epee in one of the biggest events, competing against a whopping 462 fencers.
Senior Epée Men’s Gold team
Alliance Summer Nationals Medalists:
Gold– Will East, Alex Fray, Stewart Lee, and Anton Piskavotskov, Senior Men’s Epee Team (68 teams competing)
Gold – CJ Tolsma, Cadet Women’s Epee (242 fencers competing)
Silver – Simon Lioznyansky, Junior Men’s Epee (462 fencers competing)
Silver – Dylan Elhusseini, Y14 Men’s Epee (323 fencers competing)
Bronze – James Sennewald, Division 1 Men’s Epee (219 fencers competing)
Bronze – Auprell Edwards, Division1A Women’s Epee (142 fencers competing)
Bronze – Kyle Elhusseini, Y14 Men’s Epee (323 fencers competing)
5th place medal – Avni Shiv, Junior Women’s Epee (307 fencers competing)
6th place medal – Ari Simmons, Division 1 Men’s Epee (219 fencers competing)
6th place medal – Katy Nemeth, Division 1A Women’s Epee (142 fencers competing)
6th place medal – CJ Tolsma, Junior Women’s Epee (307 fencers competing)
6th place medal – Caleb Eskridge, Junior Men’s Epee (462 fencers competing)
6th place medal – Decker Hunter, Division 2 Men’s Epee (268 fencers competing)
6th place medal – Aiden Zhang, Y10 Men’s Epee (145 fencers competing)
8th place medal – Stewart Lee, Junior Men’s Epee(462 fencers competing)
Fencing continues to grow in popularity. The United States Fencing Association has over 45,000 members for the 2025-6 season. Alliance is one of the largest and most successful clubs in the US and brought home more medals than any other club at Summer Nationals.
Twenty years ago, Alliance Fencing Academy had less than 10 members. Now the club has grown to more than 350 members with three locations in Houston, Katy, and The Woodlands. Alliance Fencing Academy was founded in 2004 by United States Olympic Coach Andrey Geva. Geva led Team USA’s Women’s Epee Team in the 2016 Olympics in Rio, an historic Gold medal win at the 2018 World Championship in Wuxi, China, and led Team USA’s Women’s Epee Team in the 2020(1) Olympics in Tokyo.
Alliance Fencing Academy is a top producer of collegiate fencers, with over 100 students receiving athletic and academic scholarships to top US universities. These athletes compete on NCAA teams at Princeton, Columbia, UPenn, Harvard, Duke, Penn State, Notre Dame, Northwestern, Stanford, The Air Force Academy, and other universities.
Classes are available for students as young as 5. Alliance Fencing also offers Homeschool and evening classes, adult classes, private lessons, training camps, birthday parties and Off Campus PE Credit for multiple local school districts.