Tigers show well at Jr. team trials

The Tigers represented school and country well, and four of the five Orange and Black fencers placed in the top 10 for their weapon. Leading the way for the men was freshman epeeist Graham Wicas, who finished in fifth place. Close behind him were fellow freshmen epeeists Mike Elfassy in eighth and Nate Sulat in ninth. Freshman sabrist John Stogin rounded out the men’s representatives with his seventh-place finish.

The sole female Tiger to compete, sophomore epeeist Chandler Clay, ended the tournament in 40th place. Freshman sabrist Caroline Merz was initially scheduled to compete but was unable to recover from a serious injury in time.

To be eligible to enter the Junior Olympics, fencers had to pre-qualify in their home state by placing well in specific events and earning national points. Fencers with enough points were then invited to compete in trial competition. Top point scorers in a series of matches, including the Junior Olympic trials, are then invited to compete in the Junior World Championships.

With all five fencers capitalizing on their individual abilities, head coach Zoltan Dudas was very pleased with the teams’ results.

“This was a very successful weekend for us as a team,” Dudas said. “All of these fencers are very young, four of them being freshmen, and so this shows great promise for the future years.”

The day began with pool play, where fencers were grouped into roughly equal divisions of talent based on their national point levels. Fencers competed against the other six or seven fencers in their group. Tournament directors then tallied wins, losses and touch differential within bouts to once again rank the fencers. Finally, play resumed with fencers competing in direct-elimination bouts.

Each weapon had around 200 competitors facing off against each other, so byes were handed out to the top finishers after pool play. All five Princeton fencers were awarded first-round byes based on their stellar early performances.

While all of the men were able to compete deep into the tournament, only losing in the final two or three rounds, Clay was taken down during her second direct-elimination bout.

“[The loss] was frustrating because I was in control of the bout for most of the time,” Clay said. “But I lost it in the last couple of touches. She got ahead of me with six seconds remaining, which wasn’t enough time for me to get the last touch I needed to tie it. Generally though, I think I fenced very well and am happy with the result.”

Though he praised all of his fencers for their performances, Dudas was especially pleased with Stogin’s tenacity.

“I am very happy with John because he went into this tournament with a serious illness,” Dudas said. “In practice before this event, I made him leave because he was coughing and had a high temperature. For him to fight back and to place in the top eight is great. He works very hard, and it paid off this weekend.”

Stogin was quick to assign credit for the weekend’s excellent results to the coaching staff.

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“The results from last weekend highlight the quality of Princeton’s new fencing coaches and the success of their persistent recruiting efforts,” Stogin said.

Dudas said that based on what he saw this weekend, the future of Princeton fencing looks even brighter.

“I’m not allowed to name anyone specifically, but I was able to see some fencers who will be joining the team next year,” Dudas said. “They had great performances in the tournament, so I’m very excited.”

The Tigers will compete in the Intercollegiate Fencing Association (IFA) Championships this upcoming weekend at Columbia, the last tournament before the NCAA Championships.