New Haven Historical Fencing sweeps top four at Piercing Party 2026

New Haven Historical Fencing controlled the Sword & Offhand - Steel division at NHHF Piercing Party 2026, filling the entire top four in a 16-fighter field and turning a crowded bracket into a club showcase. Colin Myers took first, Joseph North finished second, Isabel Branch was third, and Elizabeth Urban placed fourth.

That kind of sweep is rare in HEMA, especially in a weapon set that demands clean distance management, timing, and control with both the sword and the off-hand tool. The standings show this was not just a one-fighter breakout. New Haven’s four athletes separated themselves from the rest of the pool and stayed ahead through the final placings, with Kieran Garrity of Black Cat Historical Fencing taking fifth.

The rest of the table adds more context to the field’s depth. Stephen Cardone, Griffin Light and Ian Claflin appear further down the standings, giving the division more weight than a simple two-round exhibition. But the night belonged to New Haven, whose dominance at the top of the bracket suggested more than luck in a single draw.

The result fits a club with a deep bench. HEMA Ratings lists New Haven Historical Fencing in New Haven, Connecticut, with 19 fighters on its club profile, while the club describes itself as a weekly study group for HEMA practitioners in New Haven, CT, USA. Its class schedule shows Monday and Friday nights at Bethesda Lutheran Church, 450 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, with beginner and intermediate longsword on Mondays from 6 pm to 7:30 pm and other weapons on Fridays from 6 pm to 7:30 pm.

That kind of steady weekly structure matters in a division like Sword & Offhand - Steel, where precision and bout discipline can separate the top seeds from the rest. Black Cat Historical Fencing also showed up with Kieran Garrity in fifth and maintains its own active 2026 practice schedule, underscoring that New Haven’s sweep came in a real regional environment, not an isolated local meet. The headline result leaves New Haven Historical Fencing looking less like a one-night story and more like a club building sustained pressure at the sharp end of the bracket.