Fencing: Both teams sweep first three Ivy ties

The men’s and women’s fencing teams began their two-weekend-long Ivy League tournament in the best way possible, with both teams remaining undefeated.

“We had a great performance,” head coach Zoltan Dudas said. “That was our plan, to be undefeated at the end of the day. But it wasn’t easy at all.”

So far, the men (19-3 overall, 3-0 Ivy League) have competed against Penn (12-3, 1-2), Brown (13-3, 1-2) and Yale (11-4, 2-2). They started with an 18-9 win over the Quakers, going 7-2 in saber, 3-6 in foil and 8-1 in epee. Junior sabrist John Stogin, sophomore foilist Alexander Mills, freshman epeeist Jonathan Yergler and junior epeeist Mike Elfassy all went undefeated in their events, winning all three of their bouts.

The men’s next opponent was Brown. Princeton earned the win, 17-10. Both the saber and epee teams finished 7-2, while foil finished 3-6. Senior Thomas Abend and sophomore Craig Limoli of the saber team and junior epeeist Graham Wicas went 3-0 against their opponents.

Last for the men was Yale. This match was the closest competition for the Tiger men, who scraped out the win, 14-13.

“The men’s side had some difficulties against Yale. We had to win the last three bouts in a row to beat them,” Dudas said.

Against Yale, the saber team finished with a score of 2-7, while foil finished 5-4 and epee solidified the win at 7-2. Yergler and fellow freshman epeeist Edward Kelley each had two wins, while Wicas went undefeated again, taking three wins for the Tigers. Sophomore foilists David Mandle and Mills also both grabbed two wins for the Princeton men.

The Tiger women (24-3, 3-0) defeated the Quakers (13-5, 3-1) 19-8, with the foil and epee teams winning 7-2 and saber winning 5-4.

“We had some difficulties against Penn in the first round,” Dudas said. “We were down 2-6 and turned it around to 19-8. After a difficult start, we could regroup and still show a strong performance.”

Princeton went on to crush Brown (18-4, 0-3) 21-6 and finished off the Bulldogs (10-7, 0-4) 17-10.

Freshman foilist Brianna Martin had a standout performance in the tournament, helping the foil team to its wins against all three Ivy opponents. Of the foil team’s 22 wins throughout the day, Martin contributed eight wins and no losses. Sophomore foilist Lucile Jarry added six wins.

On the epee side, freshman Phoebe Caldwell accrued eight wins, while sophomore Susannah Scanlan and freshman Hannah Safford each picked up seven. The epee team was undefeated against the Bears, taking all nine duels.

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For saber, freshman Eliza Stone contributed five of the saber team’s 13 wins throughout the day, and sophomore Bianca Cabrera and freshman Joanna Cichomski each added four. Cichomski is also a staff photographer for The Daily Princetonian.

Next Sunday, the Tigers will compete at Penn against the remaining Ivies: Harvard, Columbia and Cornell. On the men’s side, the Tigers have a solid lead, followed by Yale in second, Brown and Harvard (9-6, 1-1) tied for third, Penn in fifth and Columbia (3-10, 0-2) in sixth. On the women’s side, Princeton and Columbia (9-4, 3-0) are tied for first place, with Penn following a close third, then Harvard (11-6, 2-1), Cornell (1-3), Brown and Yale, placing in that order.

Dudas said he has faith in the team’s performance for next weekend, because of each squad’s ability to regroup and stay strong until the end of each match to pull out its victories.

“When you can stand up and regroup from a position, this gives you more strength for future matches,” Dudas said. “Every squad did a performance at the moment we needed it most.”