Fencing teams send full slate in search of NCAA title

The men's and women's fencing teams sent a total of 20 competitors to the Mid-Atlantic/Southern Regional portion of the NCAA Championship at Penn State March 12. Coming off their win over St. John's in the Intercollegiate Fencing Association Championship, the Tigers were hoping to qualify enough fencers for the NCAA national championship this weekend at Stanford for a shot at the title.

For the first time in its history, the Princeton fencing program will send 12 fencers to the national championship — the maximum number allowed by the NCAA, and the minimum number for any team hoping to win a championship. The limit was increased this year, with the addition of women's sabre as an official weapon.

The regional competition, unlike the IFA Championship or the national contest this weekend, focused more on the individual efforts of the fencers trying to qualify than on the efforts of the combined teams.

In order to qualify, the fencers competed in two opening rounds against six opponents — with the top performers moving into a round-robin style pool of 12. Each fencer squared off once against each of the 11 other contenders and in the end, the fencer with the fewest overall losses was the regional champion.

Only one Tiger claimed that title over the weekend.

Freshman women's foil Eva Petschnigg won her division, beating Penn State's Carla Esteva in a playoff. Petschnigg's only loss in the round robin came against fellow Tiger freshman Mindy Rostal, who finished third.

"I had lost against [Esteva] before at another meet and then earlier that day I lost against her, but then in the finals I guess I figured out what to do against her," Petschnigg said.

Although she lost to Esteva in the opening rounds, Petschnigg came through when it mattered. The Tiger won the first bout in the round robin between the two by a score of 5-1. She captured the second, 5-3, to claim the Regional championship.

"It really wasn't that spectacular or hard-core," Petschnigg said of the win.

The regional results do not figure into the national competition in any way, other than to determine, in part, the qualifiers for the match.

As a result of several strong finishes at the Penn State competition, the Tigers will send their deepest team ever to the National Finals at Stanford — which begin Thursday. Petschnigg and Rostal will compete at nationals as part of a six-woman Princeton squad.

Joining the foils will be sophomores Lindsay Campbell and Maya Lawrence, who finished third and fifth, respectively, at Penn State, in the epee competition. Junior Alexa Chew and freshman Ibby Caputo will represent the Tigers for the first time at the national level in the sabre competition. Chew finished seventh at Regionals and Caputo claimed tenth.

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The men, who also qualified six fencers for the championship, were paced in the regionals by junior foil Dustin Reagan. Reagan finished third at Penn State and will be joined on the foil squad by senior Aaron Filner who finished eighth.

Seniors Jason Burrell and Steve Wang both qualified for the national epee competition and had top-10 finishes at Penn State. Freshmen sabres James Wallen and Daniel Pratt round out the men's team at nationals and placed fourth and eighth, respectively, at regionals.

Host team Stanford, Notre Dame and five-time defending national champion Penn State also qualified the maximum number of fencers for the championship this weekend. There are several reasons for Princeton to be confident going into the match, however, especially on the women's side.

"I know that Stanford's best people are taking the year off [to train] for the Olympics, but there should be one or two good fencers that I haven't seen," Petschnigg said of the host Cardinal.

Petschnigg also cited Columbia foil Susan Jennings as one to watch at the finals. Jennings defeated Rostal on a forfeited tiebreaker at IFA Championships after the Princeton freshman had beaten the Lion foil in two earlier bouts. Rostal was forced to withdraw from the competition with a pulled muscle in the top of her foot.

The NCAA Fencing National Championships take place this weekend at Stanford. The women compete Thursday and Friday, with the men's championship Saturday and Sunday.