With one eye on the Regionals next weekend, the men's and women's fencing teams spent the weekend in a lower pressure environment in nearby Lawrenceville, N.J., competing against 11 schools at the Intercollegiate Fencing Association (IFA) Championships at the Lawrenceville School.
The IFA meet is run by the Eastern College Athletic Conference and brings teams together from all over the Northeast. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious collegiate championships and many participants have gone on to win the NCAA Division I Championships.
In the men's and women's combined scores, the Tigers finished fourth overall, topped only by Harvard, Columbia and Penn. As a team, the men managed to post a strong fifth place, looking good for their run toward the NCAA Regional Tournament next weekend.
The men's epee squad finished an impressive second overall, with each of its four members — junior Tommi Hurme, freshman Edward Hurme, sophomore Max Peck and sophomore Noah Arjomand — contributing valuable points. Edward took the top spot for the Tigers with a fifth place overall finish, losing to the eventual champion.
"It was a very fun and exciting competition for me," said Hurme. "[My opponent] went on to crush the next two opponents, so I feel like I got second even though I don't have any medal to prove it."
The men's foil squad composed of junior Douglas Hohensee, senior captain Alejandro Bras and senior J.P. Mitchell finished fifth overall. Two members of the squad placed in the top 16 individually, with Hohensee losing to the eventual champion and finishing in seventh. Mitchell placed 15th.
Not to be outdone, the sabre squad closed out the tournament in sixth place with freshman Thomas Abend, freshman Clayton Flanders, junior Rob Brenner, freshman Gregory Hohensee and freshman Paul Boswell rounding out the young team. Abend led his squad with a strong individual finish of ninth overall.
The top Tiger finisher of the day, Edward Hurme, has great faith in his team's chances next weekend at Regionals.
"For Regionals, our team should do very well; we have been training very hard all year, and now is the time it counts," said Hurme.
The women managed to recover from a disappointing Ivy League Tournament result with a fourth place finish overall. The epee team, comprised of senior Erin McGarry, sophomore Jasjit Bhinder and freshman Chandler Clay, had the strongest showing of the day, barely losing to Harvard and finishing in second place overall. McGarry led the way, finishing third individually, with Bhinder following her in seventh place.
The foil squad, made up of senior captain Sara Jew-Lim, freshman Karen Petsche and freshman Ann Gong, finished at an impressive fourth overall, with all three Tigers finishing within the top 16. Jew-Lim led the charge placing fifth, with Petsche following her at 13th and Gong closing out the top at 16th. The sabre squad of junior Cara DiGirolamo, sophomore Anastasia Dubov and sophomore Jessica Fields ended the day at seventh overall, with DiGirolamo finishing in the top 10 individually.
Since this tournament does not count towards the competitors' regular-season records and therefore does not have any bearing on NCAA tournament seedings, each fencer was able to relax and work on aspects of his or her form that needed tweaking.
McGarry said that the weekend's experience was good for her and the rest of her team.
"I definitely think this competition helped prepare us for the Regional tournament next weekend," McGarry said. "Many of the strong fencers we faced will be in next week's competition as well. It's nice to get a feel for the competition before we actually have to fence for national results."
McGarry was also quick to praise two of her epee squad teammates and give them credit for the squad's ongoing success.
"Jasjit has the strongest Ivy record for the epee girls this year and placed first team All-Ivy," she said. "And our freshman epee fencer Chandler has been a great addition to the team. She has continued to get better and better with each competition."
All of the Tigers hope to get stronger with each passing competition, especially now that the post season is upon them. Next weekend, both the men's and women's teams will travel to Teaneck, N.J. to compete in the NCAA Regional Tournament. Those who qualify will then move on to the NCAA Championships in Madison, N.J., March 22-25.
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