The men’s team met with much success in its first meet of the year, highlighted by freshman foil Alexander Mills’ second -place finish among 59 competitors. Fellow freshman Marcus Howard joined Mills in the round of 16 in the event, helping the men’s foil squad to a strong finish in the tournament.
In the men’s epee field, sophomore Graham Wicas, who won a bronze medal in epee at the NCAA fencing championships in March, finished fifth in the field of 64. Sophomore Mike Elfassy was close behind, taking eighth in the event.
“The meet doesn’t count for anything,” Elfassy said. “It’s the first one of the season, and also it’s an individual meet, so it’s a lot different than everything else that goes on in the season. But as a team we did alright, a couple of disappointing results for some of us, but we also got to see a lot of strong showings from the freshman recruits.”
The women’s team, led by a group of young and talented underclassmen, also had a strong showing at University Park. Sophomore sabre Caroline Merz led the way with a seventh-place finish. Freshman foil Lucile Jarry and freshman epee Susannah Scanlan finished 17th and 18th, respectively, in their events.
Both squads, however, have their work cut out for them for the rest of the season after engaging in competition against one of the nation’s best teams. The Nittany Lions once again displayed their dominance in the sport, claiming the top spot in every event save women’s sabre.
“The tournament was wide open, and we’ve been training so much that it was a little disappointing that we didn’t dominate,” Elfassy said. “But it definitely highlighted some of the things we need to work on.”
Princeton graduated only three seniors last season from both the men’s and women’s squads, including epeeist and two-time men’s captain Tommi Hurme. The epee squad, however, returns an abundance of talent including Hurme’s younger brother, junior Edward Hurme, who will look to step up and fill his brother’s shoes.
“[Tommi Hurme] was a sick fencer and sick as a captain, but we still have a lot of skill on the epee team,” Elfassy noted. “Graham’s probably the best out of all of us, but the squad has so much skill and depth that a lot of us are going to get bout times. Everybody’s going to pick each other up rather than having a single individual standout.”
Head coach Zoltan Dudas enters his third season with a 20-10 record and a multitude of talent at his fingertips. After attracting top-notch talent in his first few recruiting classes, Dudas and the Tigers are looking to bring the Ivy League title back to Princeton for the first time since 2001. Columbia has won the title for two consecutive years.
Next on the schedule for both the men and women are the Duals at Vassar College in December.
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