By WHITNEY SADO

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The atmosphere surrounding this weekend’s Titan Games was positively chaotic. Olympic-level boxing, wrestling, judo, karate, taekwondo, weightlifting, shot-put and fencing all took place simultaneously under one roof at San Jose State’s Event Center, in a dizzying circus of sporting mayhem. Yet despite all the surrounding distractions, Stanford fencer and 2000 Olympian Iris Zimmerman remained intensely focused and helped lead Team USA to victory during the two-day fencing competition.

The senior thrived in the weekend’s fast-paced and ultra-competitive environment.

The Titan Games’ scoring format allows for each fencer in the relay event to score as many touchés as possible in a four-minute bout. The score then accumulates so that each new bout inherits the collective score of previous teammates through the six-person relay.

On Friday night, the fencing competition opened with Team USA soundly defeating the Pan American all-star team, 64-44. The Pan American team was composed of six athletes from Canada, Chile, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Brazil, and had a good start in the first two matchups between epeeists, when the score stood at an even 15-15. In the third bout, however, foilist Alex Wood, a 2000 Stanford graduate, pulled the U.S. ahead, score 16-24. Zimmerman then added to the lead by finishing her bout 35-22. The male and female sabrists for the U.S., Colin Parker and Sada Jacobson, clinched the win in the final two bouts.

The round-robin action continued on Saturday afternoon, with the Pan Asian team being narrowly defeated by both the Pan American and U.S. teams, 48-43 and 56-50 respectively.

The U.S. fell behind early in the match to the Pan Asian team and the score was tied 25-25 following Zimmerman’s bout, fourth in the six-person relay. The two U.S. sabrists then eked ahead for the close victory and ensured U.S. placement in the final held later that evening.

Team USA faced a much stronger Pan American team in the final gold medal match. Energized by their upset against the favored Pan Asian team, the Pan American team was beating the U.S. following the first three bouts, which were against both American epeeists as well as foilist Wood. Zimmerman turned Team USA’s fortunes around, however, with her crucial bout in which she made up her team’s four-point deficit and handed her last two teammates a precarious 25-24 lead. With Team USA leading for the first time of the 1st-place competition, Parker and Jacobson fenced strongly against the Pan American sabrists, who were much fiercer than they had been the day before, and finished the evening with a 50-42 victory for Team USA, final score 50-42.

“I told myself to just take it one touch at a time. I was trying to even the score and once I did that, to surpass her and give our team some breathing room. I wanted to give Colin [Parker] confidence going into his next match,” Zimmerman told reporters after the match.

“When Iris brought the match back, it gave us positive energy going into the match,” Parker returned. “This format was so exhilarating and we fed off the energy of the packed crowd.”

The win this weekend bodes well for the U.S. at next summer’s Olympic Games, yet Team USA undeniably has work to do if it wants to improve upon 2000’s 4th place finish and actually reach the podium. Zimmerman has decided to take time off this spring to work towards that end.

The Titan Games will be aired on ESPN2 on March 29 at 3 p.m. and March 30 at 4:30 p.m.