Two Tiger fencers earn IFA individual championships

This weekend 254 fencers descended on Boston College for the 106th meeting of the Intercollegiate Fencing Association Championships. While twelve collegiate teams were represented, in the end only two — the Princeton Tigers and the Columbia Lions — dominated the competition. On the men's side, Princeton junior captain Soren Thompson captured the individual men's epee title for the second time in three years while the Tigers team took second place, just behind the Lions. And on the women's side, freshman Jacqueline Leahy took first place in the foil competition as the Tigers barely edged Columbia to take home the IFA's first place trophy.

However, despite Princeton's many successes, perennial power Columbia swept most of the team events. The Lions finished first in the coed six-weapon team standings, with 142 victories. Its men's three-weapon team captured the trophy as well. The Columbia women shared the three-weapon team title with Princeton, as each squad recorded 70 victories.

The deadlock between the two women's teams was resolved by the IFA through a tabulation of individual touches called "indicators." When these were added up, the Tigers had squeaked out a victory over the Lions. Thus, the women's IFA Championship Trophy will reside in Princeton for the first half of this year.

Stacking the deck

Overall, the men's team had a great deal of success and fenced very well in fighting to its second-place finish. The men's epee squad of senior Bill Beaver, sophomore Eryck Kratville, senior Mitch Slep, and Thompson won the epee squad trophy. In all, seven Princeton fencers — Thompson, Slep, freshman Michael Brosterman, junior Jimmy Wallen, sophomore Jim Leighton, sophomore Scott Sherman and junior Eric Stodola — were able to qualify for the individual competition field of nine. Thompson then went on to win his second title in the individual men's epee event .

"It would have been great to finish ahead of Columbia after our heartbreaking loss to them earlier this year, but they were able to pull out just a few more victories and clinch the top honors," Thompson said.

Thompson, Slep, freshman Ben Solomon, Beaver, Stodola, junior Jonathon Jew-Lim, Sherman, Brosterman, Wallen, and Leighton will head to Penn State for qualifiers next weekend. From those athletes, a maximum of two per weapon can qualify for the NCAA Championships two weeks later.

For the women's team, victory came despite the loss of the women's top sabre fencer, sophomore Catherine Pack, to injury. Columbia's perenially powerful team was once again favored to win the title from the outset of the championships, but in the end could not overcome Princeton's efforts.

"Columbia was the team to beat and we came pretty close to doing it (outright)," senior captain Mindy Rostal said. After the inital tie for first between the two teams, the tiebreaking system employed by the IFA made the underdog Tigers the new national champions.

The day would find women's foil in first place, epee in second and sabre in sixth. But once again the Princeton fencing story seemed to focus around precocious freshman foil Jacqueline Leahy, who is undefeated on the year. Taking first in the foil competition, Leahy received a total of only five touches during her twelve victorious bouts. She would defeat Harvard's Anne Austin (who was ranked 9 seeds above Leahy) for the gold medal. Meanwhile, Rostal would finish the day with an eighth-place foil finish, and Leahy's fellow freshman Kira Hohensee would take second in the epee competition.

On Tuesday the women will find out who has qualified for next weekend's NCAA regional championship at Penn State. Since Princeton is part of the Mid-Atlantic Conference, it will not fight against typical rivals such as Columbia or Harvard. Instead, the Tigers' only real threat will be from Penn State, a national championship squad to whom the women have already suffered one devastating loss earlier this year.

"We just want to be the best non-scholarship school out there," Rostal insisted.

The NCAAs are primarily an individual competition, and with this year's young standouts, the Tigers are primed for more success in this postseason.