For the first time in nine years, the fencing team brought home both the men’s and women’s Ivy League championship titles. Princeton wrapped up the twin titles on Sunday after a two-weekend-long Ivy League tournament.
Coming into the second weekend of the tournament, both the No. 4 men (21-3 overall, 5-0 Ivy League) and No. 4 women (27-3, 6-0) were undefeated after beating Penn, Yale and Brown the previous weekend. Both teams maintained their perfect marks, with wins over Harvard and Columbia. The women also took home a win over Cornell.
“Fortunately, we could stay undefeated as we entered into this second day of the championship,” head coach Zoltan Dudas said. “It was really stressful and challenging; We had great opponents to fence with. It’s been four years of work for both the men and women, and we are very happy.”
The women opened the second day of the tournament with an important match against Columbia (14-5, 5-1). Both teams entered the match with a 3-0 record and hopes to take control of the tournament. The Tigers beat the Lions 15-12 thanks to an undefeated nine bouts from the foil team. Both the epee and saber teams went 3-6 for Princeton. Foil team members sophomore Lucile Jarry, sophomore Rocky Rothenberg and freshman Brianna Martin each took three wins for the Tigers.
Next for the women was Cornell (1-5), a win they took easily, 20-7. The saber and epee teams each contributed six wins, while the foil team took home eight.
The third and final match for the women was also the closest. The match came down to the last few bouts, but the Tigers prevailed, capturing an exciting 14-13 win over Harvard (15-8, 3-3). The saber and foil teams both went 4-5, and epee went 6-3. The last two title-clinching points came from two foilists, sophomore Andrea Oliva and freshman Joanna Cichomski. Cichomski is also a staff photographer for The Daily Princetonian.
The men opened the weekend against Columbia (3-15, 0-5), which they beat with a decisive 23-4 victory. Saber went 6-3, while epee took home eight wins. The foil team — with sophomore Alexander Mills, freshman Robert Malcolm and sophomore David Mandle — earned nine.
To complete the undefeated Ivy League streak, the men finished by defeating Harvard (14-7, 3-2) 18-9. Both the foil and epee teams won seven of nine bouts, and the saber team won four.
The Tigers took more All-Ivy honor titles than any other school, with six fencers earning first-team honors. Mills, freshman epeeist Jonathan Yergler and junior epeeist Graham Wicas obtained men’s honors, while Martin, Jarry and sophomore epeeist Susannah Scanlan earned All-Ivy honors on the women’s side. Mandle, senior sabrist Thomas Abend, freshman sabrist Eliza Stone and freshman epeeist Phoebe Caldwell earned spots on the second team for Princeton.
Martin had the highest win percentage of any competitor in the tournament, winning 15 of her 16 bouts.
“I’m happy with the whole team’s strong will and great fighting attitude,” Dudas said.
On March 13, select members of the men’s and women’s teams will go on to the NCAA Regional tournaments in Madison, N.J. The NCAA championships will follow, taking place March 25–28 at Harvard.
“Now we are focusing 100 percent on the best possible NCAA result,” Dudas said.
The teams are hoping for at least sixth place in the NCAA tournament, Dudas said, and are aiming to send at least 10 fencers on from the Regional qualifying round to the national tournament.
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