Tigers look to finish as a team at IFAs

The men's and women's fencing teams will both look to wrap up solid seasons this weekend at the Intercollegiate Fencing Association (IFA) Championships in nearby Lawrenceville, N.J.

It will be the last tournament for Princeton as a team, before qualified individual fencers continue on to the NCAA Regionals and Championships later this month.

Starting Saturday at the IFAs, the Tigers will go up against Ivy League opponents such as Cornell and Brown, as well as Eastern College Athletic Conference foes Vassar, NYU, Boston College and Brandeis.

The men's team (9-5 overall) has had a successful year up to this point, beginning the season with a few disappointing losses but quickly rallying to finish with a winning record.

In early February, the Tigers managed a couple of exciting wins over Brandeis and Harvard, the defending NCAA champion. After some tough fencing in last weekend's Ivy League tournament, Princeton finished close behind Harvard and Columbia to tie with Penn for third place.

Junior epeeist Tommi Hurme made the all-Ivy first team this season and is the two-time defending IFA champion in the epee competition.

After an unlikely win at the IFAs in his freshman season and another win last year, Hurme has high hopes for this year's competition, both for himself and the men's team.

"I'm definitely hoping to win again," Hurme said. "I think overall our performance as a team at the IFA's this year will be relatively higher than it has been the past two years because we have excellent freshmen, and I think they can do a really fabulous job."

One of those freshmen is Hurme's brother — freshman epeeist Edward — who joined junior foilist Douglas Hohensee in garnering second-team all-Ivy honors for the Tigers.

Led by graduating senior foilists John-Paul Mitchell and Alejandro Bras, the men are looking to give another strong performance at the IFAs.

The women's team (8-6) ended the regular season with a fourth-place finish in the Ivy League.

Sophomore epeeist Jasjit Bhinder and freshman foilist Jocelyn Svengsouk garnered first-team all-Ivy honors, while senior epeeist Erin McGarry made the second team.

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It has been a rebuilding year for the Tigers, with a new head coach — Zoltan Dudas — and only one junior and three seniors on a 15-person roster. The women's epee team, though, has gone undefeated.

"On the whole, we've been pretty consistent," freshman epeeist Chandler Clay said. "We've beaten the teams we should have beaten and competed really well against the toughest teams."

With difficult competition ahead at the IFAs, Dudas is excited to see how both the men's and women's teams will perform.

"I think individually we can get some medals in different weapons," Dudas said. "You know, it's going to be a big fight for every [victory]."

Unlike most team tournaments, the IFAs are largely an individual competition.

Each school ranks its top-three men and women fencers in each weapon: epee, foil and sabre.

In the first round, for instance, Princeton's No. 1 foilists will compete only with the top-seeds from other teams.

After that, in each weapon category, the top-eight No. 1s, top-four No. 2s and top-two No. 3s advance to fence each other in pool play.

At tournament's end, there is an individual champion in each weapon and an overall team winner.

"My personal goal is to be in the top two of all of the three-seeded fencers because that way I can get to compete with some higher level fencers in the end," Clay said.

Clay is excited about competing in the IFAs to end her rookie season as a freshman college fencer.

"This year we've all been working really hard, and I'm really pleased to see that," Clay said. "We're all really looking forward to [the IFAs] and hope to do well."