Led by Thompson, deep men's team hopes to repeat as Ivy champions

Last year's Ivy League title in men's fencing was shared by Princeton, Columbia, and Pennsylvania.

This season the Tigers are reloaded with fresh talent and hope to repeat as Ivy League champions.

"We did get some good recruits and have some excellent sophomores and juniors returning from last season so we will certainly compete for the Ivy title once again," sophomore epee Soren Thompson said.

Princeton returns all but two starters from last year's team. Although the Tigers lost captain Terry Kim '01 and Dustin Reagan '01 to graduation, its incoming freshmen should compensate for the departures. Kim led last season's squad to the Ivy League title as the No. 2 sabre fencer, and Reagan competed in the top position for the foil squad.

Aside from the loss of Kim and Reagan, Princeton is quite capable of repeating as champion in a division that appears to be wide open.

Once again the Ivy League title will be up in the air between the same three teams that shared the honors nearly a year ago. This year's Ivy League championship could be decided by a few dual meets down the stretch, with the potential to make the upcoming fencing season very interesting.

The Tigers will travel to New York on Feb. 2 to face Columbia, and then host Penn 10 days later at home.

The Lions are without last year's NCAA foil champion Jed Dupree, and fellow All-American foil Rafi Bruckner. Columbia also lost All-American sabre Patrick Durkan to graduation. Dupree and Bruckner combined for 200 dual meet wins over their illustrious careers. All epees are back for the Lions, and all but one sabre returns to the squad.

The Quakers are missing foil Yaron Roth, a seventh place finisher at last year's NCAA championships. They are also without First Team All-Ivy League selection Charles Hamann, an important contributor to last year's epee squad. Penn returns sophomore foil Jeffrey Breen, Second Team All-Ivy selection, and seniors Scott Eriksen and Jeffrey Lee. Both Lee and Eriksen were Second Team All-Ivy selections with the sabre and epee respectively.

And as if a possible three-way race for the Ivy League title is not interesting enough, throw in the fact that the three teams in the hunt for a championship are all bitter rivals.

"Our biggest rivals are, without a doubt, Columbia and Penn. We tied for the Ivy League title with those schools last year and anything could happen this season," said Thompson.

Thus far Princeton has competed in the Penn State Open, and the Tigers are cautiously optimistic about the rest of their season. Princeton recognizes that it has a difficult dual-meet schedule on the horizon, and does not want to lose its focus. In the month of February alone the Tigers will battle Rutgers, St. John's, Harvard and Yale in addition to facing its main rivals.

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Even though it is still relatively early in the fencing season, the Tigers believe they can be competitive in each weapon, especially the epee.

Princeton's epee squad, perhaps the strongest in years, should be the real strength of the team. The epee squad is anchored by senior captain Matthew Fitzgerald and features one of the nation's best in Thompson.

As a freshman, Thompson was undefeated during Ivy League competition last season and also finished first at the Intercollegiate Fencing Association championships with a dramatic win over Doron Levit of St. John's. He then proceeded to finish first at the NCAA championships as well.

Freshman Brandon Lafving is a new addition to the epee squad and will see immediate action. Lafving and freshman sabre Scott Sherman are two standouts among the entering class capable of contributing to the team right away.

Juniors Bill Beaver and Phil Nevels also return to the epee squad, adding greater depth to an already talented group.

The tremendous strength of the epee squad, coupled with the return of several members of the sabre squad, should allow Princeton to be more than competitive.

Juniors Ed Chou and Mike Brosterman anchor the sabre squad, along with sophomore Josh Younger. Each is expected to win some matches this season — especially Chou, who placed ninth in sabre competition at last year's Intercollegiate Fencing Association championships.

The future also looks bright for the men's foil squad, as two promising sophomores return for another year of competition. Sophomores Jonathan Jew-Lim and Eric Stodola should see plenty of action as starters this season.