Princeton advances seven on to finals

While most students were sleeping in Saturday morning, recovering from a long night of studying or partying, members of the fencing team were rousing themselves at 6 a.m. and preparing for a 15-hour day of intense competition.

This past weekend the Tigers — eight men and seven women — competed in the NCAA Mid-Atlantic/South Regional Championship hosted by Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, N.J. According to unofficial results obtained from head coach, Zoltan Dudas, the men's team was able to qualify three fencers for the NCAA National Championship, while the women will send four. The NCAA is expected to announce the official qualifier list today.

The path to qualifying was a lengthy process. Princeton began the day competing in pool play, which consisted of five or six bouts for each fencer. After the initial round of pools, those with the highest scores moved on to compete in another round of pool play. The highest scorers from this second round moved on to the finals, where they fenced against all of the other remaining competitors. At the end of this grueling pool, the scores were tallied, and the fencers were ranked according to their wins and losses.

While the competition was staunch, the Tigers managed to finish well enough to qualify over half of their team members for Nationals. On the men's side, junior epee Tommi Hurme, at fourth overall, had the best finish of any Tiger. By virtue of his fourth-place finish, Hurme automatically qualifies for Nationals. Since returning from a fall semester abroad, Hurme has dominated the field and brought much leadership to the epee squad. Competing well, but falling a bit short of qualification were sophomores Max Peck and Noah Arjomand, who finished 15th and 19th respectively.

In men's foil, junior Douglas Hohensee led the way finishing eighth overall, with senior captain Alejandro Bras close behind him at 10th. Senior J.P. Mitchell closed out his career at 17th place, while freshman Clayton Flanders finished his first season at 18th. Despite Hohensee's higher finish, Dudas expects Bras to be the sole foilist to qualify for the National meet.

The lone Princeton representative to the Regional Tournament from the sabre squad was freshman Thomas Abend. Abend fought hard enough to end the day with an eighth place finish, and Bras expects that he will receive an invitation to compete in the Championship meet as well.

Bras has confidence in the members of his team who will represent Princeton at the National Championship meet.

"Everyone who qualified from Princeton, and even some who didn't, deserve to be at NCAAs," Bras said. "It should mark a fantastic end to a very successful season."

Senior epee Erin McGarry, who finished second overall, led the way for the women, only losing two bouts in her final round of pools. She has been solid all year, consistently finishing in the top three spots at meets, and has a strong chance to take the national epee title.

Also qualifying from the epee team is sophomore Jasjit Bhinder, who placed eighth overall, just making the cutoff for NCAA finals. Though she is only in her second year, Bhinder has the mental toughness of an older competitor and will be a threat to anyone who does not take her seriously. Freshman Chandler Clay missed qualification with a 16th place finish, but the bout provided invaluable experience that will allow her to improve in the coming years.

The women's foil team had three of its members place in the top eight, with freshman Jocelyn Svengsouk finishing at sixth, senior captain Sara Jew-Lim at seventh and freshman Karen Petsche at eighth. Both Svengsouk and Jew-Lim scored high enough to move on to the NCAA Championships, but Petsche will stay behind because no school may send three fencers to the finals in the same event. The two rookies, Svengsouk and Petsche, have bolstered the foil squad and given it much-needed depth. As the squad will lose Jew-Lim to graduation at the end of this year, they will be called upon to step up and become leaders.

Rounding out Princeton's female competitors at last weekend's tournament was sophomore sabre Cara DiGirolamo, who placed 17th overall.

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After seeing the competition at the regional tournament, Jew-Lim is optimistic about the Tigers' chances at the National Championship in two weeks.

"I think that our fencers who have qualified are very competitive in the field," Jew-Lim said. "They will represent Princeton with strong individual performances across the board."

The seven Tigers expected to qualify will fence at the NCAA Championships from March 22 to 25 at Drew University in Madison, N.J.