On Sunday, March 12, the men’s and women’s fencing teams competed at the National Collegiate Athletic Association Northeast Regional, hosted by Yale University. The women’s side was able to place two competitors into the final round of competition, foilists Joanne Carminucci ’19 and Jessica Gets ’20.  The men’s team was unable to match the women’s excellence, but it did still manage to advance three saberists, two foilists and one epeeist to the semifinals of the meet.      

The women’s team as a whole performed admirably at the tournament, but the squad was clearly led by Carminucci and Gets. Both competitors dominated the first round, with records of 5-1 and 4-2 for Carminucci and Gets, respectively. The semifinals presented more of a challenge for the young fencers, as both women sported even records of 3-3. However, the scores in the round were good enough to advance them to the final round, as they took the last two available spots.

Their success came to a skid in the championship round, as Carminucci and Gets struggled to get past the elite competition. Gets did not pick up a victory, as she finished in 12th place. Carminucci, on the other hand, recorded a score of 3-8, which earned her a 10th place overall finish. On Tuesday, Carminucci and Gets will find out if they have qualified for the National Collegiate Championships. There are nine bids for the Northeast region, as well as two at-large bids.

Also competing admirably for the women was saberist Nina Sayles ’17. While Sayles went 3-3 in the first round, she came up one victory short in the semifinals from advancing to the final round. However, her list of victories was impressive, with wins against fencers from New York University, Cornell University and Sacred Heart University, as well as the third place finish from Columbia University.  Sayles has a lot to be proud of  from her collegiate career.

For the men’s team, the saber squad was the leader on the day. Leon Rotenstein ’20 had the best performance for the Judges in the opening round, compiling a record of 4-2. Kyle Berney ’18 picked up a 3-3 record during the round, while Curtis Wilson ’18 had a losing score of 2-4. Representing the saber squad, all three of the team’s participants managed to advance to the semifinals of the meet.

During the semifinals, all three of the fencers were able to pick up two victories each. Wilson, in particular, won an impressive bout against a fencer from Columbia, the defending national champions. Both Wilson and Rotenstein finished higher than their initial tournament seedings with their solid performances.

The men’s team continued its impressive play with its foil squad. From foil, Len Grazian ’17 and Elishua Litle ’18 were able to advance to the semifinals. Each went 3-3 in their opening round but were unable to get the third victory needed in the semifinals to move on to the championship. Grazian and Litle finished the tournament in 17th and 19th place, respectively.

The last semifinalist from the men’s team was epeeist Hunter Stusnick ’18. Stusnick started off the meet strong, recording a score of 4-2 in the opening round. One of those victories came against an epeeist from Columbia, who was able to snag a fifth-place finish in the championship round. Stusnick, who was seeded 27th overall, finished in 17th place.

This meet will be the last one of the season for almost all of the squad. It will say goodbye to a handful of high impact seniors but will look to improve upon its performance this season with a better 2017 to 2018 campaign.

Looking back upon the year, the team’s best performance might have come a few weeks ago at the New England Collegiate Championships on March 4. With the men and women overall, the team was able to stun their competition and capture a first place championship at the meet. The women placed first on their side of the event, narrowly passing the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 171-169.