Volume 117 >> Issue 64 : Tuesday, December 9, 1997

PDF of This Issue

Fencers Face Off at BC Meet

The men's and women's fencing teams met some tough competition this past Saturday at Boston College. The men's team fenced Brown University, Vassar College, St. John's University, and host BC. The women's team fenced Brown, Tufts University, St. John's, and BC.

The women's team began the tournament by cleaning up the competition from Brown with a combined women's foil and epée score of 26­6. The victory was repeated against Tufts with a score of 21­11. As the day drew on, the energetic but tired fencers experienced a 5­13 loss against St. John's and also to Boston College, by one bout, with a score of 16­17.

St. John's Division I, nationally-ranked team presented some difficulties for the MITteam. Despite the pressure, "we were fencing well," said foilist Oriana C Hunter '99. "We were focused, alert and ready," and although St. John's is one of the best teams nationally, "we were still able to put up a good fight," she said.

Epéeists rack up wins

In the epée squad, Nora Szasz '99 had an excellent record of 13 wins and only 3 lost bouts. Sara Perry '99 had an outstanding performance with a record of 8­4. Against the tough competition from St. John's, Perry beat an NCAA champion from two years ago. Jessica Sandland '99 also had excellent fencing with a record of 9­7.

Beginner fencers participating in this competition were Zahra Kanji '01, Lyudmila Borodavkina '99 and Dalie Jimenez '01.

The women's foil squad also had some great fencing this weekend. Captain Aimee Wiltz '99 had an impressive 11­5 record.

Oriana Hunter '99 came close behind with 10­6 while freshman Dianne Allen '01 had an outstanding 9­7.

Men's competition tough

The concentration and competition could be felt among the men as they beat the first two schools they fenced against. Vassar experienced the sour taste of defeat with an overall foil, epée and sabre score of 18­9. The men also beat Brown with a close 14­13.

The formidable St. John's fencers managed to defeat the MIT team with a score of 19­8. The epée team came very close to victory, however, with a score of 4­5.

Boston College wrapped up the day by beating the team 11­16. The men's epée team, however, won 7­2 against them, though that was not enough to carry an overall victory.

Great fencing was seen during this competition from the men. Jonathan Blandford '98 had a 7­4 overall personal record at the end of the competition. Matthew DuPlessie '99 finished with 5­4 and Matthew Coates '98 had a 6­3 record.

The men's foil team had good performances from Ali Ibrahim '01 and Andre Van Horn '01 as well as foilist-for-the-day Michael Krypel '01, who is usually on the epée squad but was substituting for an absence.

The stamina that kept the sabre team going and succeeding could be seen in their captain, Brian Bower '99, who managed a record of 7­5, and Evangelos Efstathiou '00, who had a record of 8­4.

Outstanding fencing was also shown by Allen Chen '00 and Phillip Miller '01.

The team will spend 10 hours a week practicing during IAP to be ready for the continuation of the season at the end of January.