Men's, women's fencing earn Ivy titles

The Tigers were tied 9-9 after two rounds of fencing with Yale. The next four bouts went by quickly — Princeton lost all of them.

The Tigers were down 13-9 with Yale threatening to destroy all the women's fencing team's dreams of Ivy glory.

One bout from defeat, the Tigers rallied. Junior foil Allison Toy won her first bout against the Elis. Senior Kristiina Hurme and junior Maya Lawrence both soundly defeated their opponents in the epee, while senior foil Lisa Leslie won an emotionally charged bout with Yale freshman Jennifer Joseph which tied the match, 13-13. It came down to a foil bout between sophomore Mindy Rostal and Yale's Zane Seldrik. It was not the first meeting between the two.

"It's always very close so I certainly was concerned with the fact that it was coming down to the two of us," Rostal said. "But I was also confident, I knew how to beat her and I was ready for the bout."

And ready she was. She beat the Eli fencer, 5-1, and clinched the win for the Tigers. Rostal was immediately tackled by her teammates in a frenzy of excitement, and although they did not know it at that point, Princeton had just clinched the Ivy League championship. Later in the day Penn beat Columbia, giving the Lions two losses and making Princeton the sole league champion.

Both the men and women won the entire Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet Saturday, clinching a share of the Ivy Title for both teams. The women's squad won 17-10 against the Crimson and the deciding match 14-13 against the Elis, while the men's team decisively beat Harvard, 23-4, and Yale, 19-8. Once again, intensity and focus were the key to the teams' victories, and it especially showed in a number of key bouts.

"We knew that we had to perform perfectly to achieve what we wanted," Hurme said. "And it just happened. It just felt as if it was destined for us to win."

"All three squads fenced really well, but our ability to focus even when there were dozens of people cheering for [and against] us, and when we knew that a championship was on the line, is what really enabled us to outperform Yale," Lawrence said.

Whereas the women's team had to stage a comeback, the men's team used a very different method to win the meet — domination.

On each squad, the numbers were mind-boggling. Foil went a total of 11-7 on the day, with senior Dustin Reagan and freshman Jon Jew-Lim going undefeated against Yale. The sabre squad finished 15-3 on Saturday, with junior Ed Chou going undefeated against both teams, senior Terry Kim going undefeated against Harvard and junior Mike Brosterman doing the same against Yale. The epee squad also went 15-3 in the meet, with both junior Matt Fitzgerald and freshman Soren Thompson going undefeated against both the Crimson and the Elis.

"I think the guys were even more fired up for this meet not only because of the Ivy title, but also because it was our last meet of the season," team captain Kim said. "We wanted to go out strong no matter what."

The men's squad was looking for a big finish, and with its routs of Harvard and Yale, it certainly found it. Though Yale exploited its strength in the foil, Princeton dominated the other two weapons, giving the Tigers an important victory to end the season.

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"College fencing is all about the team and not individual fencers," Jew-Lim said. "Which is what we've been proving all year against teams like Columbia and Yale."