Fencing team earns 4th place at NCAA Championships

Traveling to Columbus, Ohio to conclude their season, the Princeton fencing team would place fourthin the NCAA championships. Twenty-five teams were present at the event.

The Tigers had 11 total representatives at the event. From the men’s team, they sent junior Jack Hudson and sophomore Alex House (epee), freshman Thomas Dudley (foil), and freshman Edward Chin and sophomore Peter Pak (sabre). From the women’s team, Princeton sent forth juniors Anna Van Brummen and Isabel Ford (epee), sophomore Ashley Tsue and senior Ambika Singh (foil), and freshman Allison Lee and junior Gracie Stone (sabre).

From the men’s team, only Hudson advanced to the semifinals for his weapon. He won 17 of his bouts (for a winning percentage of .739), which earned him a spot in the final four. House would win 12 of his bouts, placing 11th.

In the semifinal round, Hudson edged Lewis Weiss of Ohio State by the tiniest of margins, eking out the win 14-13. After this battle, he would move on to face Jake Hoyle of the Columbia Lions, the team that would ultimately place first overall in the tournament. Hudson would fall 15-11 to Hoyle, the new NCAA men’s epee champion.

As for foil, Dudley would place ninth, winning 14 bouts for a winning percentage of .609, but failing to qualify for the final four. The same fate would befall Chin and Pak in the sabre category. They would finish right after one another in the standings - Chin won 14 of his bouts and Pak won 13, good for eighth and ninth place respectively overall but not high enough to compete for first place on the last day.

The results for the women’s team would heavily mirror the men’s results. Van Brummen, one of Princeton’s top performers on the season, won 17 bouts to move onto the final four. She would then face defeat at the hands of St. John’s Isis Washington, falling in the match by a single point, 15-14. Van Brummen would ultimately finish third overall for women’s epee. Her weaponmate Ford would finish seventh overall, not qualifying for a chance to compete for the top prize.

As with the men’s team, epee would be the only weapon to send someone into the final stage. Lee and Stone would pick up 14 wins each across their bouts, and would finish seventh and eighth respectively. Tsue and Singh would fare less well, winning 12 and 8 bouts to finish in 10thand 18thplace, respectively.

Overall, the Tigers would finish fourthin the NCAA championship, and become the only program to finish in the top four over each of the last five years. Princeton’s accolades would not end there, as Van Brummen, Ford, Stone, Tsue and Lee would earn All-American honors after their strong performances over the weekend.