Fencing
Jerrica Liao, grade 7, is now ranked second in the U.S. in women’s foil age 12 and under and is ranked 16th in the U.S. in age 14 and under, following stellar results at the U.S. Fencing National Championships in Anaheim in July.
On July 3, in the Y-14 event with 123 fencers, Liao started out going 3-2 in pools and seeding 56. She won her first elimination bout handily 15-6, then weathered a very tough bout against the 25th seed, winning on time 6-5 (Y14 and older fencers fence to 15 touches or for nine minutes), an exhausting way to win! Then Liao ran into some luck. She would normally have faced the number one seed, but that girl had been eliminated and her path hijacked by the 33rd seed, who lost to the 48th seed — and that’s who Liao (seeded originally 58th) faced in the quarter finals. Liao triumphed 8-3, then hit a hard spot, facing the number four seed, to who she succumbed, finishing in third place, for an outstanding result in a bracket above her age group. This finish upped Liao’s competitive rating from E12 to a B12, putting her among the top fencers in her age bracket.
The next day, July 4, Liao fenced in the Y-12 bracket finishing 18th of 135. She seeded third out of pools, winning all her bouts and being touched only three times while delivering 29 touches, to give her a +26 indicator. She won her first two matches easily, then ran into a toughie in the table of 32: Y-12 fencers fence for best of three five-touch bouts and Liao lost the first bout 2-1, won the second 5-1 and lost the third 2-1 to finish 18th and locking her into the number two spot in the country.
Squash
This summer Sunya Siddiqu, grade 6, played a lot of squash, coming in first and taking two seconds in three August competitions. She is ranked 14th in the U.S. in her bracket, girls under age 11.
In late August, Siddiqu competed in the San Diego Gold tournament in the girls under 11 (GU11) singles category and won all three matches to come in first. With six participants, players compete in boxes: three participants in each box do a round robin, then the top two finishers play for the championship. Siddiqu won her box, then lost to the other top finisher to take second.
In early August, Siddiqu competed in the Decathlon Junior Open Junior Silver. Siddiqu won her boxes in both the GU11 and GU13 events, but lost in the final to take second in both events.
Basketball
Benjamin Soraire and Levi Sutton, both grade 4, played in the Silicon Valley National Junior Basketball summer season and the boys met when their respective teams played each other in the championship game. The Bulldogs (Soraire’s team) and the Ballers (Sutton’s team) set a new record with the championship game going into five overtime periods and, finally, to sudden death play. In a tough struggle for the win, the Ballers sank one for the win. Both boys plan to play for Harker this year. Congratulations to both boys for their efforts this summer!