Portland, Answered.

Ten days at the Oregon Convention Center. A national champion at age 10. A bronze medal carved out of a 202-fencer bracket. A fifth-place run through 239 entries. And an 82-year-old on the podium — again. Fortune went to Portland with a question. It came home with the answer.

A National Champion at Fortune Fencing

Isabelle Wong with Coach Elsayed Emara. National champion, Y-10 Women’s Épée.

Let’s not bury it. Isabelle Wong is a national champion. In the Y-10 Women’s Épée at Summer Nationals — a bracket of 105 fencers, the deepest field of the year at her age level — Isabelle went all the way to the top of the podium. Not a top-8 finish. Not a strong showing. First. In the country.

Back in April, our pre-Nationals report called her the fencer who “owns Y10 Women’s Épée in our region” and predicted she would arrive in Portland as a seeded favorite. Four regional and super-regional golds said as much. But regional dominance and a national title are different animals — a 105-fencer national bracket is a gauntlet of pool bouts and direct elimination rounds where one slow start ends the day. Isabelle didn’t have a slow start. She had a coronation.

For a 10-year-old to close her season as the épée national champion in her age group is the single biggest individual result in this club’s season — and one of the biggest in its history.

Four National Medals

Allison Yip — Bronze, Y-12 Women’s Épée

The Y-12 Women’s Épée drew 202 fencers — over two hundred of the best young epeeists in the country in one bracket. Allison fenced her way to the semifinals and a national bronze medal. After a season with five golds and two B-ratings, this is the national-stage validation of everything her regional record promised. She also took on the older fields, placing 20th in Y-14 — a top-10% finish fencing up an age group — and gaining hard national-level experience in Cadet.

Matthew Hwang — 5th, Y-12 Men’s Épée

The Y-12 Men’s Épée was the biggest bracket Fortune entered all week: 239 fencers. Matthew cut through it to 5th place — a national top-8 medal. In USA Fencing national events, the top 8 stand on the podium, and Matthew earned his spot through one of the most crowded fields on the entire schedule. He backed it up with an 18th in Cadet — again fencing above his age — confirming what we wrote in April: his game scales up.

James Gallivan — Bronze, Vet-80 Men’s Saber

Summer Nationals 2025: bronze. February NAC 2026: bronze. Summer Nationals 2026: bronze. That is now three consecutive national events with a Vet-80 Saber medal for James Gallivan, age 82. And he didn’t stop there — he entered four events across two weapons and two age brackets, taking 9th in Vet-80 Épée, one spot off the podium, and voluntarily fencing down into the deeper Vet-70 pools in both weapons. Most fencers half his age wouldn’t attempt that schedule over ten days in Portland. The streak is real, and so is the standard he sets for every fencer in this club.

Full Fortune Results — Portland 2026

Beyond the medals, the table tells the story of a club that competed everywhere. Fortune fencers took on fourteen event entries across Youth, Cadet, Division II, and Veteran categories. Lucas Parra ground out a 37th in the massive Y-14 field to cap a 27-start season. Mark Kruger flew the Fortune colors in both Vet-60 Épée and the enormous open Division II bracket — national-scale fields where taking the strip at all is part of how a club builds its presence. Allison and Matthew both deliberately fenced up in age — the kind of scheduling that costs you placement today and builds champions for next season.

What Portland Means for Fortune

In April, we framed the season around one question: was #34 of 548 U.S. épée clubs the ceiling of 2025/26 — or the floor of what’s next? Portland answered.

A national gold in Y-10. A bronze out of 202. A top-8 out of 239. These results come from the youngest end of our roster — Isabelle, Allison, and Matthew have years of Y-12, Y-14, Cadet, and Junior fencing ahead of them, and they are already producing on the national stage. The club’s strength curve isn’t peaking. It’s just getting started. Meanwhile the Veteran program keeps stacking podiums at the other end of the age spectrum, proving the full-life club model we wrote about in April isn’t a slogan — it’s a medal count.

The 2026/27 season starts in August. The regional golds, the ratings, the national medals — all of it now feeds next year’s strength ranking. The top 30 was the target we named in April. After Portland, it’s not a stretch goal. It’s the schedule.

To every Fortune fencer who stepped on a strip in Portland — and to Coach Elsayed Emara, Coach Zeyad Elashry, and the entire coaching staff who got them there: congratulations. Rest up. August is coming.

—  SEE YOU NEXT SEASON  —

Results: FencingTimeLive, Summer Nationals and July Challenge 2026, Portland OR. Compiled July 9, 2026.