Tigers claw their way through Temple Duals and National Squad Championships

It was a packed weekend for men’s and women’s fencing, as both teams traveled to Philadelphia to compete in the Temple Duals, only to turn around and prepare the next day for the National Squad Championships.

With the NCAA Championships not too far in the distance, both of these teams have reason to keep their hopes high. The Princeton men’s team currently holds the No. 8ranking in the nation. The women have been even more impressive, standing at No. 3. However, Temple Duals certainly didn’t feature a slew of easy teams for the Tigers to rout. Out of the five schools the Princeton teams would face, three of them held spots in the top ten nationwide (for both men’s and women’s teams).

For the men’s team, the day started off excellently. They defeated Brown 22-5 in sabre, épée and foil — moreover, the sabre and épéematches proved to be bloodbaths, with Princeton winning 17 of the 18 bouts between both events. Their next opponent, Stevens, would fall in similar fashion, as the Tigers would dominate in all three categories en route to a 20-7 victory. Against these first two opponents, the stars for the team were freshman Edward Chin of saber (6-0 through the first two), and the foil duo of sophomore Jeffrey Chen and junior Rodney Chen, combining for 11-0 through these games.

The ranked opponents proved far more difficult. After Stevens, the Princeton men’s team would have to face the No. 1-ranked men’s fencing squad in the nation, Penn State. The match came down to the wire, but Princeton fell 5-4 in both saber and foil, and the 5-4 victory in épéewas not enough to overcome the loss. A similar result would befall them against the No. 7-ranked Penn, where Princeton would come one victory shy of defeating their Ivy League rival. Their final opponents of the day would be No. 6-ranked St. John’s, who defeated Princeton in both foil and épéeand won the match 16-11.

The women’s team would face much more success on the day. After trouncing Brown 23-4, the women would engage in a heated battle with the home squad Temple, just pulling out victory 14-13. In particular, performance in épéewas key to helping the Tigers edge out the Owls. Junior Anna van Brummen and sophomore Elizabeth Meyers ought to be given much credit, having gone 4-0 combined to give the épéeteam a 6-3 victory and along with it a victory for Princeton.

Like the men’s team, the women’s team would fall to Penn State, ranked No. 6 in women’s fencing. The performance was the worst of the day for the Tigers, as they lost in all three categories to Penn State, with an overall score of 18-9.

After this speed bump, Princeton got back to their winning ways. They would take down Penn and St John’s to the tune of 16-11 and 17-10, respectively. The match against St. John’s featured a wonderful bounce-back performance by the saber team. After getting crushed by Penn State 8-1 and losing a close one to Penn 5-4, they would end the day on a high note, winning 7-2 behind perfect performances by junior Gracie Stone and freshman Allison Lee.

With Temple behind them, the team prepared for the National Squad Championships. Both teams had high finishes in every section. The men received silver in saber, falling in the final round to Penn 45-36. Épéealso would feature a second-place finish for Princeton, as the team would defeat NYU in the semifinals 45-37 but fall to Sacred Heart by a near identical score, 45-38. Men’s foil was to come in third, falling to the strong Penn team in the semifinals, and redeeming themselves with a solid 45-32 victory over Brandeis soon after.

As in the day before, the women’s team saw more success than the men did. They overall earned two first-place finishes and one third-place. Saber would eke out a nail-biter over Penn 45-43; the foil team would have a very different experience with the Quakers, crushing them 45-21 in the final round. The bronze-receiving épéeteam was shut out of a championship match due to a heartbreakingly close loss to Brandeis (43 — 42) in the semifinals. They convincingly defeated Sacred 45-36 to earn third, making them the highest performing women’s team at the event.

The Tigers will have well-earned rest as they prepare for the NCAA Regionals on Saturday, March 7. This in turn will be followed by the NCAA Championships, which begin Thursday, March 19.