Thompson takes first, fencing team finishes third at IFAs

After beating Yevgeni Niyzov of Rutgers, last year's champion, he was most of the way there. But down three touches against Doron Levit of St. John's in the finals of the Intercollegiate Fencing Association championships, freshman epee Soren Thompson knew he had to turn things around or his chance at the championship would be gone. And turn around he did. Thompson scored the rest of the touches on his opponent and finished the final individual pool undefeated, winning his first IFA championship.

After both the men's and women's fencing teams won H.Y.P.'s last weekend and shares of the Ivy championship, they had to prepare their team for another big tournament, as they went to compete at the IFA championship Saturday and Sunday at Harvard. Princeton's team-based attitude served little purpose on Sunday, because each fencer was competing for individual titles.

On Saturday, during the team competitions, the Tigers matched up against many of their old rivals from the Ivy League. Princeton placed highly in each of the weapons: men's foil sixth, men's epee third, men's sabre fifth, women's foil second, women's epee third and women's sabre sixth.

Last year, the Tigers finished first in men's, first in women's and first overall. They brought all their trophies with them to the tournament this year. By the end of the tournament this year, they had given them all back. The men's squad finished fourth and the women's squad placed third. They combined to place third overall. The main focus of the tournament, though, was the individual competitions that help to prepare fencers for the NCAA tournament, which begins next weekend. Princeton sent a total of 19 fencers to the tournament, and six of them finished in the top twelve of their respective weapons—two from the men's squad and four from the women's.

During the team competitions on Saturday, fencers competed in one of three pools in their respective weapons in order to qualify for the final pools on Sunday. Each squad's top-seeded fencer was in the A flight, the second-seeded fencer was in the B flight, and then the next best were in the C flight. To qualify for the finals round, A level fencers had to finish in the top six of their group, B level fencers in the top four, and C level fencers in the top two. Those that did then competed Sunday in one of two six-person first round pools in which a fencer had to finish in the top four in order to compete with the final eigh in an additional round.

While the men's team boasted Thompson taking first in epee and sophomore Ed Chou taking ninth in sabre, the women had sophomore Mindy Rostal placing second in the foil, junior Maya Lawrence placing third in epee, senior team captain Lisa Leslie finishing tenth in foil and senior Alexa Chew taking 11th in the sabre.

The only fencer taking first was Thompson, who has been a constant force on the men's epee squad all season. He went undefeated during the Ivy League season this year and is looking forward to training for the NCAA tournament.

Thompson, who deferred admission to Princeton in order to travel and fence, feels he has gotten used to the college style of fencing.

"I'm getting very used to the college formats and I can draw on my skill and experience in every bout I fence," Thompson said.

The fencers have begun training for the NCAA regionals and championship, which begin this weekend and finish during Spring Break. The team has a tradition of performing well, with last year's women's squad finishing sixth overall at the Championships.

"I'm really pleased with my fencing over the weekend because I felt it was at a high level and sophisticated," Thompson said. "I think I can work off that in my training for the NCAA regionals, NCAA championship, and the upcoming Junior World Championships."