Fencing: Key fencers guide Princeton to victory

The men and women combined for a 9-1 record at the Princeton Multi-Meet. The men’s team (14-1) took on five other schools — Haverford (13-4), Duke (6-3), Johns Hopkins (11-5), North Carolina (20-3) and Drew (9-3) — and handily defeated all five. The team finished the weekend with a total bout score of 92-43.

Despite falling short of the men’s cumulative score by a single bout, the women’s team (6-4) finished 4-1 in the Home Duals with a score of 91-44, defeating Haverford (4-16), Duke (4-8), North Carolina (11-5) and Drew (6-9) and losing only to No. 8 Temple (11-5).

Members of both squads recorded stellar performances. Sophomore epees Graham Wicas and Nate Sulat were both unbeaten in the competition. Wicas recorded crucial bout victories against Haverford, Duke and North Carolina, finishing with two key scores in the Tigers’ closest match of the day against Drew. Sulat contributed three victories apiece in the wins over Duke and North Carolina.

“The meet went very well, especially our strong performance against Duke,” junior sabre and captain Thomas Abend said. “It was good to see some of our subs come in and play key roles throughout the day; they really gave us a lot of flexibility. Overall it was a great day, and as of the meet yesterday we are 14-1 on the season going into our first Ivy meet next weekend. That’s a good place to be.”

Freshman foil Alexander Mills also went undefeated. Mills finished with three victories against Duke and two against Haverford, helping the foil squad finish an unblemished 9-0 against the Haverford Fords behind performances from six fencers.

The men’s performance was so dominant on Sunday that among the 21 fencers that competed, only four recorded more losses than wins in their individual bouts.

On the women’s side, junior foil Ann Gong and freshman foil Lucile Jarry both notched perfect 5-0 records. Jarry’s two victories in foil against the Owls helped the Tigers put up a fight. Unfortunately for Princeton, it fell behind early in the foil and ultimately lost 6-3. Jarry was the only fencer from Princeton to record multiple victories against Temple. Gong had three victories against Drew and led the foil squad to a 9-0 sweep of the Rangers.

“On the epee side, Lauren Clark fenced very well this weekend,” senior epee and captain Jasjit Bhinder said. “One of her bouts against the Temple team was very impressive because the other girl was highly ranked, and Lauren was able to defeat her. In general, I was very excited to see all the freshmen fence because they are usually the most nervous, but they showed how strong they were by their excellent records.”

Freshman sabre Bianca Cabrera and sophomore sabre Caroline Merz had perhaps the busiest days of any fencer on any team. Cabrera competed against all five schools, winning 10 bouts and losing five. Merz posted two-win and one-loss performances against both Duke and Drew and proved to be the deciding factor in both victories by the Tiger sabre squads.

The Princeton Multi-Meet featured some of the best individual fencers and teams in the nation. Half of the nation’s top-10 women’s teams at the time were present: Top-ranked Penn State, then-No. 7 Princeton, then-No. 8 Temple, then-No. 9 Penn and then-No. 10 Duke.

But Princeton hasn’t seen the last of tough competition. As the Ivy League schedule nears, the women’s squad ranks No. 9 in the nation and third among Ivy League schools behind No. 3 Harvard and No. 8 Penn. The men’s team sits at No. 8, trailing No. 4 Harvard and No. 7 Penn.

“The Ivy competitions are going to be very tough this year,” Bhinder said. “Every school is competitive, but I am confident that we will do well. We have been practicing all year long so that we can claim the Ivy title, and I feel that the team has progressed a lot since the beginning of the year, and I think that we will see results from our hard work.”

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

“Harvard and Penn are definitely two of the teams to look out for. I would also say Columbia is the other team to watch out for. They’ve won the Ivy title for two years in a row now.”

Next up for the Tigers will be the Ivy “South” Competition at Columbia on Sunday.

The upcoming meet, along with the Ivy “North” Competition on Feb. 22 at Brown, will determine the Ivy League Championship.