Three fencers take All-Ivy honors

“I believe that this was a realistic result,” head coach Zoltan Dudas said. “On the men’s and women’s side the result was what we had expected just by looking at the numbers.”

Combining this weekend’s 1-1 record with a 1-3 finish at the Ivy “North” tournament, the women’s team closed out the Ivy League season with a 2-4 record overall and tied for fifth place with Cornell. The men, with a combined result of 2-3, were able to secure a fourth-place finish.

While the teams didn’t take home top honors, three individual fencers were rewarded for their outstanding records. For the women, junior epeeist Jasjit Bhinder earned first-team All-Ivy honors, and sophomore epeeist Chandler Clay was named second-team All-Ivy. On the men’s side, and freshman epeeist Graham Wicas was named second-team All-Ivy.

“I’m very proud of all three fencers,” Dudas said. “They each worked very hard and showed great improvement during the season.”

Both teams began Sunday’s competition at Jadwin Gymnasium against a weaker Yale team, and both finished their bouts with 15-12 victories. The women’s sabre lost 5-4, with only senior Cara DiGirolamo coming away with a winning personal record of 2-1. The young foil team picked up some of the slack, however, with freshman Mina Zargham, sophomore Karen Petsche and sophomore Ann Gong all compiling 2-1 records. Epee followed suit with both Clay and Bhinder building 2-1 records.

On the men’s side, sabre started out with a vengeance as freshman John Stogin and sophomore Thomas Abend finished with 3-0 records against the Bulldogs. Sophomore Paul Boswell was right behind them with a record of 2-1.

The foil squad struggled, however, as both sophomore Steven Liss and freshman Peter Toshev lost all three bouts, but sophomore Clayton Flanders picked up some of the slack and finished with a 2-1 record. Epee also had some difficulties as senior captain Tommi Hurme and freshman Mike Elfassy went 1-2, but Wicas’ 3-0 finish enabled the squad to secure a victory.

All of those hard-fought 2-1 victories were critical to the outcome of the match.

“In fencing you need to have a very deep team to be able to have a good result since each weapon is three fencers,” Dudas said. “So generally I’m happy with all of our strips because in important moments they added additional victories and allowed us to beat Yale in a close match.”

In the afternoon bouts against Penn, the Tigers were dominated, and both teams were only able to secure seven bouts apiece, as both teams lost 20-7.

On the women’s side, freshman sabre Caroline Merz was the only fencer to finish with a winning record at 2-1. DiGirolamo and junior Jessica Fields lost all of their bouts while freshman Lyuba Docheva won one, leaving the sabre squad with a 3-6 record. In foil, Zargham was the only player to win a bout as the squad fell 8-1. Epee fared slightly better, winning three bouts and finishing with a 3-6 record.

For the men, both Abend and Stogin won one bout apiece, and senior Rob Brenner was unable to capitalize on any chances, leaving the sabre squad with a 2-7 record. In foil, Flanders was the only fencer to win a bout, resulting in a difficult 1-8 finish for the squad. Epee was able to challenge Penn slightly, with Hurme winning two bouts to finish at 2-1 and both Elfassy and Wicas winning one. The squad was just barely edged by Penn in a 5-4 losing effort.

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While finishing at the middle of the Ivy League pack was not what either the men’s or women’s team had in mind when they set goals at the beginning of the season, Dudas has hope for the future.

“This year we have many freshmen filling starting positions,” Dudas said. “Next year all of these freshmen and sophomores will know better what to expect and will be able to perform at an even higher level. I expect big things next year.”