Wicas, Hurme thrust Tigers to 10th place

The six Tiger fencers who qualified for last week’s NCAA Championship tournament competed well enough to catapult Princeton to a 10th place finish out of 24 teams. Leading the pack were freshman epeeist Graham Wicas, who parried and thrust his way to a bronze medal, and senior epeeist Tommi Hurme, who nabbed seventh. Both men finished high enough to earn All-American status.

Rounding out the men’s team’s representatives, freshman sabrist John Stogin placed 20th, and sophomore foilist Clayton Flanders won three bouts to finish 24th. On the women’s side, junior epeeist Jasjit Bhinder took 11th place, and freshman sabrist Lyuba Docheva finished 20th.

The competition took place over the course of two days, with only the top fencers moving past the initial pool-play portion.

After the grueling round-robin segment, Wicas had won 16 bouts and was seeded first overall. This top finish qualified him to participate in a four-man playoff round to determine the medal winners.

“The biggest challenge of the tournament is mental,” Wicas said. “A fencer must remain detached from the pressure of qualifying for the top four. For me, the challenge was coming out of the day ranked first because it put pressure on me to maintain my position.”

Wicas wasn’t quite able to rise to the challenge, losing his first match by four touches, 15-11. Bouncing back immediately, he refocused and defeated his opponent in the third-place match to grab the bronze medal.

“I felt confident that I could do very well in the tournament, but I didn’t enter expecting a specific result,” Wicas said. “I was very pleased with my finish. This year I have improved in many ways thanks to [head coach] Zoltan Dudas and my many talented teammates.”

Wicas does not plan to rest on his laurels, however, and plans to work hard for next season. He understands that the moment he gets comfortable with his position on the podium, he’ll be quick to be knocked off.

“To be consistent in fencing you can’t fixate on your past accomplishments,” Wicas said. “Next year I hope to [continue] fencing well and do my best.”