Fencing opens at Penn State invite

While most collegiate athletes find themselves rusty at the beginning of a season, members of the Princeton fencing teams opened their seasons with strong showings.

The Tigers easily shook off the dust that often plagues teams early in their competitive seasons at the Penn State Garrett Open this weekend.

The tournament, an individual competition, featured several impressive finishes for both the men's and women's teams.

Junior Jacqueline Leahy was the highest finisher for the women's team, placing second in the foil division.

"That's the best I've ever done in this meet, and I wasn't quite expecting that," Leahy said, noting she had taken this past summer off.

Sophomore Kira Horhensee, competing in the épee division, brought home a strong third-place finish. Overall, the women had four top-10 finishes spread across the three divisions.

The men also fenced well with senior Soren Thompson and junior Ben Solomon placing first and second in the épee division, respectively.

Thompson's first-place finish at Penn State follows a very impressive performance in Athens at the Olympics this summer. He upset the No. 2 seed to advance to the quarterfinals before losing, the strongest American finish in the sport in several decades.

The talented men's and women's fencing teams also showed depth at a meet renowned for its competitive quality.

The men's team had 12 finishers in the top of half of their respective divisions, while the women had nine.

Key to the strong start of the women's team was rigorous preseason training.

"I think our preseason was really strong in terms of workouts, and the team was pretty prepared — we had a strong performance," Leahy said, though she was careful to add that there was still much work to be done.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

"This tournament showed we have a lot of work ahead of us, [although] we started off strong," she said.

Leahy also pointed out that the Penn State invitational meet acted as a gauge to see where each team was relative to its competition. The two-day event featured some of the strongest teams in the NCAA, and each year some of the top finishers at the NCAA Championships in March place well at this tournament.

Looking ahead, both teams can look forward to long seasons. In the Ivy League, Columbia is sure to be a challenge for both teams. Leahy thinks Harvard has a strong freshman class and will present a challenge as well. Penn won the women's championship last year and can be counted on to provide another strong showing this year.

Columbia has bedeviled the men for the past four years, winning at least a share of the championship each year.

On the road to Ivy League and NCAA supremacy, both teams have an upcoming meet in Chapel Hill, N.C., where they will face UNC, NYU and Penn State. That meet will be followed by a string of home meets against local and league rivals.

For both the men's and women's teams, the upcoming season is sure to be long and difficult, but with the strong performances of Leahy, Thompson, Solomon and others, the Tigers look forward to carrying the momentum of their strong start.