Princeton ends its season at NCAAs

Seven, they say, is a lucky number. This past weekend, the fencing team certainly hoped this old saying would hold true as it sent seven members to compete in the NCAA National Championship finals.

The men started the national competition Thursday afternoon, with each Tiger representative fencing a 14-bout round robin. In men's saber, Princeton's lone competitor, freshman Thomas Abend, ended the day in 23rd with two victories. Abend struggled in the beginning of his rookie national debut and couldn't quite get his footing as the competition wore on.

In men's foil, senior captain Alejandro Bras fared a little better, finishing in 21st with four wins. Bras is no stranger to the national stage; he competed in the NCAA Championships in both his freshman and sophomore seasons, finishing 21st and 18th, respectively. Junior epee Tommi Hurme, another familiar face to NCAA competition, ended the first day in sixth place with nine victories.

The three Tigers won enough bouts individually to tie Princeton as a team with Air Force at 12th place at the end of the day.

On the second and final day of the men's competition, Abend was able to recover from his initial missteps the day before and win five out of his nine bouts. He finished with a total of seven wins in the competition, which was enough to boost him to 19th place but not enough to earn him a spot in the final playoff.

In men's foil, Bras only managed to get two more victories. He finished with a total of six wins and ended his NCAA career in 22nd place. Hurme had the best result for the Tigers, ultimately finishing in 13th place in epee with a total of 11 victories.

"This was by far the toughest competition of the year, and I felt well-prepared but things just didn't work out the way I had hoped," Hurme said. "I started off strong but then couldn't maintain that momentum into the second day when I had to fence my hardest opponents."

The men competed well enough to raise Princeton's team rank to 11th overall, leaving the women to continue to fight for the top spot.

Saturday morning began the women's NCAA Championship competition. The women had no representative in saber, but they had two in both foil and epee. On the first day, freshman foil Jocelyn Svengsouk fought hard to win six of her 14 bouts and earn a spot in the middle of the pack at 12th place. Senior captain foil Sara Jew-Lim also was able to win six of her first 14 bouts, but she finished the day placed at 15th.

Since there were six girls in the competition with six victories, the final standings came down to each girl's margin of victory. In the epee competition, senior Erin McGarry, a two-time All-American, had the best Princeton finish on the day coming in 11th place with seven victories. Sophomore Jasjit Bhinder ended the day with five wins and a solid grasp on 19th place.

Combining the scores of the men's competition with the first portion of the women's competition, Princeton jumped from 11th to 10th place overall.

Sunday rounded out the NCAA Championships with each Tiger competing in her final nine bouts. Svengsouk finished the day where she began in 12th place, amassing a total of 11 wins over the course of two days. Jew-Lim was also able to reach the 11 win mark; however, she placed 15th overall due to a lower margin of victory in her bouts.

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In the epee, McGarry dropped a couple spots from her previous day finish to end up in 13th place overall with a total of 11 wins. Behind her with seven wins was Bhinder, who dropped a few spots as well to finish in 21st overall.

As a team, Princeton finished the weekend and the 2006-2007 NCAA season in 10th place out of 28 teams, a feat that is even more impressive than it sounds. As points are amassed from individual wins, the teams with more competitors are at a distinct advantage — so the Tigers were disadvantaged coming into the competition.

Princeton's tenacity this past year and the wealth of young talent still on the team has put the Tigers in great position to match this year's NCAA finish when they begin competition next winter.

"Next year I think we can come much closer to filling all the available spots and winning many more bouts at nationals," Hurme said. "We should definitely be able to finish several spots higher next year, especially with our promising new freshman class."