Fencing

"It’s not the easiest thing to explain,” Soren Thompson ’05 said of his improbable return to the Olympics. Thompson, currently the ninth-ranked epeeist in the world, competed in the Athens games in 2004 but was essentially out of fencing entirely less than two years ago. Then, he decided he wanted to go to London.

The men’s and women’s fencing teams entered the NCAA Championships in Columbus, Ohio, with very high expectations. The Tigers met those hopes with the best performance in program history, finishing second to host Ohio State in the team scoring, and on Sunday afternoon, junior epeeist Jonathan Yergler won the national title in men’s epee.

Senior epeeist Eunice Chan is co-captain of the women’s fencing team, which swept its opponents in the Ivy League Championship earlier last month. The fencing team is gearing up for the NCAA Championship in Columbus, Ohio, but between preparation and her thesis, Chan took the time to sit down with the ‘Prince’ to talk about the different weapons in fencing compeition, the best team chants, her love for Greece and her favorite word.

For the second consecutive year, the men’s and women’s fencing teams will likely have the maximum 12 competitors at the NCAA Championships. Princeton filled 11 slots, plus five alternates, at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic/South Regional on Saturday, with three fencers winning individual titles.

Just a day after students stormed the court at Jadwin Gymnasium after men’s basketball’s upset against Harvard, Princeton’s fencing teams were storming the strip at Coxe Cage in New Haven, Conn., in celebration of their new titles: undefeated Ivy League champions.