Kambeseles Wins Greek Junior National Championship

On the last weekend in January, most of the UNC fencing team was enjoying a rare off weekend and preparing for the pending Northwestern Duals. But not sophomore Jack Kambeseles, who was 5,000 miles away from campus in Athens, Greece, being crowned the Greek Junior National Champion in men's epee.

Kambeseles has been fencing for as long as he can remember. As a kid, Jack would duel at home with his twin brother, Peter, with fake swords. Their parents decided to turn their playful antics into something productive and sign them up for fencing classes. The Kambeseles' twins have gone on to be great fencers. Peter, who is also a right-handed epee fighter, fences for third ranked Penn State and won the Greek Junior Nationals back in 2019. He was a semifinalist this year, falling one match short of facing his brother in the finals.

"We're twins so we're basically like mirror images as right-handed epee fencers," said Kambeseles.

Traveling to Athens this year, Kambeseles had to fight through jet lag and come ready for a long weekend of bouts. Kambeseles competed in 11 bouts, the first six in pool play, and the final five in a win or go home elimination tournament. Kambeseles was able to capitalize on his physicality and endurance, winning the championship bout, 15-6. Kambeseles credits his physical strength to the level of training at UNC.

"I was able to take UNC's approach to fencing, with all of the lifting and physical training, and bring that into my fencing in Greece," said Kambeseles.

Kambeseles has had a busy last three weeks. The weekend before traveling to Greece, Kambeleses competed for UNC at the Philadelphia Invitational, and the weekend following his European excursion, he was back with the Tar Heels at the Northwestern Winter Duals.

While fatigue would catch up to most college sophomores competing at a high level across the globe, Kambeseles is no stranger to travel going back to his pre-college days.

"Fencing in high school has prepared me for all of this travel. I used to travel out of state and out of the country almost every weekend, so eventually, I got traveling down to a science," said Kambeseles.

Kambeseles' Greek Junior National Championship qualifies him to represent Greece at the European Junior Championships in Serbia and the Junior World Championship in Dubai this summer. Kambeseles will miss the European Championships for the ACC Championships in late February but is eager to travel to Dubai.

Kambeseles and the Tar Heels will be back in action this weekend in Durham for the Duke Duals. Kambeseles will be fencing against ACC rivals Duke, as well as his twin brother Peter and Penn State.

The two-day event in Durham is available to watch live on ESPN plus or follow along on Twitter for live match updates.

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