Owen Hannon
2025 LEAVING THE NEST SENIORS
Owen attended his first fencing class toward the end of his 5th grade year. His parents had decided that he needed to stop being lazy and get active, and told him he needed to do a sport. He surprised them both by wanting to try fencing, stating that his love of Star Wars drew him to fighting. His mom didn’t know much about it, and didn’t understand why she had to drive 30 whole minutes to the nearest club. Little did she realize, that was actually pretty close for such an elite, state-of-the-art training center. Owen took his time in level one, and just barely advanced right before the pandemic started. He took a few months away, and then came back ready to learn more and get serious. He switched from foil to epee, spent a year in Core and then decided he wanted to start competing nationally. 2 years later, at the end of his junior year of high school, he won 7th place in Men’s Division II Epee and took home a national medal from the Summer Nationals’ tournament in Columbus. This was only his 7th appearance at a national fencing tournament.
After that, he decided to take a step back from fencing, to focus on finishing his senior year well. He was accepted into Oregon State University with an academic scholarship, and he plans to pursue mechanical engineering with a focus in aerospace. He also plans to continue to fence at the club level.
He is incredibly thankful for the friends he has made along the way, the coaches and staff who have helped him succeed, and the support from the club in general. He could not feel more blessed to have found such a significant and supportive part of his life in his time at Northwest Fencing Center.
