Thompson wins gold medal in epee at NCAA Championships

One of the greatest experiences for an athlete is to stand atop the blocks and lean forward to receive a medal for performance at a tournament.

Standing there amidst wild applause and cheers this weekend, two Princeton fencers received these great accolades at the final tournament of the year and knew that they were among the best fencers in the United States.

In an exciting finish to a successful season, men's and women's fencing teams together finished fifth overall this weekend at the NCAA championships in Kenosha, Wisc., with sophomore Mindy Rostal winning the bronze medal in the foil and freshman Soren Thompson winning the gold medal in the epee.

The Tigers finished behind four major scholarship schools — St. John's, Penn State, Notre Dame, and Stanford.

Thompson's gold medal certainly helped Princeton to its fifth place finish. Although he finished fifth in the regional qualifying match, the freshman came out of the first day of competition in first place. From then on, it was all Thompson. He defeated St. John's Alex Roytblat in the semifinals, a second meeting for these two competitors who had already met during the season and at the Intercollegiate Fencing Association tournament.

The championship bout against Penn State's Alex Wiercioch was particularly difficult. Up two touches on Thompson, Wiercioch was poised for the win. Thompson then mounted a strong comeback using unexpected and deft actions, going on a 6-1 run. He defeated his opponent, 15-12, to take home the championship.

"I fenced a tactically great bout against Roytblat before moving on to the tougher Wiercioch," Thompson said. "I knew that the match would be really tough, but that I had only one more bout to win and that I needed to give it everything I had."

The gold medal seemed to simply cap off what has already been a superb season for the freshman from San Diego. He finished his season with a record of 23-3 in dual meets, as well as a 12-0 Ivy League record. With the championship, Thompson is keeping with what seems to be a Princeton freshman fencing tradition — foil Eva Petschnigg '03 won the gold last year in the women's competition.

While Petschnigg is no longer fencing at Princeton, her former teammate, Rostal, almost matched her feat from last year.

Rostal was seeded second after the 24-match round robin competition, losing only three matches. In the semifinal bout, she faced Penn State's Marta Grachal and lost a close bout, 15-14, in which many of the director's calls were controversial.

"I had some trouble with some of the director's calls and she got some points that were mine," Rostal said. "So it being that close of a bout, every touch mattered."

Rostal was far from beaten, however. In the bronze medal match, she met Stanford's Ute Breden in a bout that had played itself out a number of times before — Rostal and Breden have been competing against each other in tournaments since 1990. Though it was a good bout, Rostal won decisively, 15-8.

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"I felt pretty good about my performance at NCAA's," Rostal said. "The crowds were great. We didn't have too many Princeton people there, but there were a lot of people still cheering for me and that was very helpful."

Several other members of the women's squad also finished near the top, helping Princeton capture fifth place. In epee, junior All-America Maya Lawrence took seventh and senior captain All-America Lisa Leslie finished 11th in the foil. But it was Thompson's gold-garnering performance that highlighted the weekend.

Thompson takes his place in Princeton history as only the eighth Tiger fencer to win gold at the NCAA individual championships, and the first men's champion since 1996 when Max Pekarev '99 took home the sabre title.

"It was a great end to a good year and a very stressful and difficult meet," Thompson said. "In addition, it was a perfect preparation for Junior World Championships just a couple weeks away. I hope to maintain my momentum with a successful finish in Poland."

This year's squad has upheld Princeton fencing's lofty standards. With the combined team finishing fifth, this group of Tigers continues the strong tradition of Tiger fencing as the eighth-consecutive Princeton team to finish in the top 10 at the NCAA Championships.