The men's and women's fencing squads finished in second place at this year's Intercollegiate Fencing Association championships, held this weekend in Providence, R.I. Though the Tigers came up just short of Harvard, several individuals turned in stellar performances that they hope will carry over to the NCAA individual championships, to be held later this month.
The top performance of the weekend was that of the men's epee squad. The Tigers finished with an overall bronze medal, with senior Soren Thompson finishing ninth and freshman Tommi Hurme earning the individual gold medal. Hurme had a crucial performance in the IFAs against Harvard's Benji Ungar, in which he came from behind after trailing seven hits to one to win the match.
Hurme was following up on an impressive performance at the Junior Olympics two weekends ago— he placed third in his age division, qualifying him for the World Team in only his first year of college.
"I changed my game and started going after him," he said of the comeback against Ungar.
Hurme said the three most important factors in the Tigers' success have been teamwork, persistence, adding that captain Scott Sherman did an excellent job of "rallying everyone together."
The women's epee performance won it an overall gold, with junior Kira Hohensee placing 12th and sophomore Erin McGarry placing an impressive fifth.
"I was happy that we won by such a large margin," Hohensee said.
Solid in the sabre
Both the men's and women's sabre squads ended the weekend with a solid finish. The men tied for sixth place, with junior sabre Owen Cornwall placing eighth. Caroline Blocker, Princeton's only female sabre in the tournament, finished 12th, helping to secure a sixth-place spot for the women.
The Tigers' foil squads put up strong performances as well. The men placed second in this category, with freshman Douglas Hohensee placing fourth and sophomore Alejandro Bras placing eleventh. Hohensee, younger brother of women's epee Kira, led the Tigers with three wins in the dual meet against Haverford on Feb. 5. The women's epee fencers didn't do as well as they had expected to but still managed to place sixth in the category, highlighted by junior Jacqueline Leahy's first-place performance. Leahy's 14-1 record earned her a spot on the All-Ivy first team.
The Tigers hope to carry the momentum from their IFA performance with them into regionals this weekend and then the NCAA Championships, which will be held in Houston in two weeks. With the talent Princeton has already displayed, the team will likely place several individuals near the top of their weapons class.
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