Fencing: Princeton vies for Ivy championship

With a record of 2-1 heading into the second and final round, the No. 10 Princeton women’s squad finds itself in an even stronger position.

Both teams will travel up to Providence, R.I., this Sunday for the Ivy “North” Competition, which will decide the league champion.

The men’s and women’s squads will face three schools that have not yet come up on Princeton’s schedule this year. Yale, Columbia and Brown will all look to take a bite out of the Tiger teams that have been on a record tear up to this point.

“Columbia is by far the most dangerous team we’ll be fencing,” junior sabrist and captain Thomas Abend said. “In recent history, they’ve been the dominant team, but they came out flat against Penn, and I think we definitely have the talent to beat them,” he added, noting that though he thought the other teams were not as strong, he knew the Tigers couldn’t take them lightly.

No. 4 Columbia has won six of the last nine Ivy League titles on the men’s side. The Lions feature an equally strong women’s squad that is looking for Ivy bragging rights for the third consecutive year.

The men have already fought four bouts in the first round of competition and will only face one school in this final round of fencing.

Whether this will help in their physical preparation or grind on their nerves on Sunday remains to be seen.

“If we can beat Columbia and go 3-0 this Sunday, that will go a long way toward our goal of an Ivy title,” Abend said. “Penn has already fenced with us and Columbia, but they still have Harvard who can be dangerous and might match up well against them.”

Out of 17 games played this season, the men’s team has suffered merely two losses, which came against against No. 1 Penn State and No. 5 Penn, two not-so-shabby opponents.

After soundly defeating No. 7 Harvard 17-10 two weeks ago, the stage flipped on Princeton as it lost to Penn in an almost statistically identical match.

Led by sophomores Graham Wicas, Nate Sulat and Mike Elfassy, the epee squad won its bout against Penn 7-2. An 8-1 thrashing by Penn in the sabre and a close 5-4 Penn victory in the foil left Princeton short of the victory.

Despite the setback, the men still look the strongest in the epee heading into the final round this weekend.

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The Quakers’ 17-12 victory over the Tigers puts Penn atop the current rankings at 3-0. Should Princeton win all three of its bouts on Sunday, a little help from Harvard and Yale could put the title in the Tigers’ hands.

“Well, obviously in sports there are no guarantees, but a Penn defeat would certainly make [winning the Ivy title] a possibility,” Abend said. “Penn came out very strong in the first round, and we were really disappointed to lose such a close and important match. That said, we’re just looking to control what we can this weekend. If we come away from Sunday with three victories, then we’ll have done all we could.”

The women’s team defeated Cornell and No. 5 Penn in the Ivy “South” Competition but fell by a single bout to No. 6 Harvard. The Crimson’s dominating 7-2 performance in the epee more than made up for a less than desirable showing in the other two events.

Princeton currently sits third in the rankings behind undefeated Harvard and Columbia. Senior co-captains Jasjit Bhinder and Jessica Fields will look to lead the Tigers to three more victories on Sunday.

In addition to No. 3 Columbia, the women will also face off against Yale and Brown, who have combined to win one out of seven bouts in the first round of action.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, Princeton seems to have fallen from the height of Ivy League fencing in recent years.

From 1994 to 2001, the men’s team brought home six of the eight Ivy crowns, while the women put together a three-year streak from 1999 to 2001. The title trophy has not made its way into Jadwin Gymnasium since then. Should a dominating performance from Princeton and some fortuitous defeats from other schools occur on Sunday, the Tigers could remedy this drought and once again bring Ivy fencing glory back to Old Nassau.

“It’s easy to get sidetracked into what-if conversations, especially when you have a week off between Ivy rounds, but we’re just going to go out Sunday and fence the way we’ve prepared to fence all season,” Abend said.