Both the Men's and Women's Fencing teams got their seasons underway last week by competing in separate events. It has been a successful start to the season for the Blue Jays Men's Fencing team, as they have notched wins in all but one of their matches so far.
On Tuesday, the team traveled to Medford, Mass. where they competed against several schools. In all but one of the matches, the Jays were triumphant, defeating Tufts 18-9, Massachusetts 16-11 and New Hampshire by a wide margin of 26-1. The Jays' only loss came against Boston College 15-12 in a closely contested match.
The Jays were particularly reliant on freshman Jason Park, who went 11-1 in the sabre. Senior Yong Kwon was almost as good, going 10-1 in the events in which he competed.
In the foil, sophomore Brian Bishe had an impressive performance as well, as he won eight duals out of the nine in which he competed. Also impressive was the performance of sophomore John Majewski who led the Jays in the epee by going 7-4.
Players were encouraged by the team effort.
"After seeing our fencers compete, I got even more confident about our season," said Bouloubasis.
The Men's Fencing Team began the year on an impressive note last week, as they defeated St. John's, Virginia Tech and Yeshiva. In the sabre, several fencers stepped up to the early-season challenge to lead the team to overwhelming victories. Freshman Jason Park went an impressive 7-0, while senior Yong Kwon went 6-1 and sophomore Fred Lee was 4-2.
The Jays were also dominant in the foil, winning 24 of their 27 duals. Among the standouts for Hopkins were senior Daniel Frank and sophomore Brian Bishe. Both went 6-0. Finally, in the epee, the Jays were also quite successful as sophomore Anson Tang led the Jays with a 7-0 record while senior Dave Kotlyar and junior Matt Bouloubasis each went 6-0.
The Blue Jays will now wait for nearly two months before their next match. They will next compete January 11-12 when they will travel to Evanston, Ill. to battle in the Northwestern Duals. Until then, they will engage in the grueling schedule of practicing and evaluating their performances in matches thus far. They are optimistic that their season will be filled with successful matches.
"Looking down the road, I see us doing very well," said Bouloubasis.
The women's team also has a positive outlook regarding their season. The team traveled to State College, Pa. to participate in the Garret Pennsylvania State Open last Sunday, Nov. 17.
The tournament was an individual competition, where individual efforts were not combined to create a team score. It featured some of the best collegiate fencers in the nation from a range of colleges including Penn State, Notre Dame, Harvard, Princeton and others. Even with this competition, the Blue Jays still managed to place several fencers high in the rankings. The team managed to do better than some had expected.
Senior Allison Barker earned the highest placing for Hopkins with a No. 12 finish in the sabre. Angel Tao finished in No. 30 in the same event.
Junior Christina Giblin was Hopkins' highest finisher in the foil, earning a 13th place finish. Other strong finishers in the foil included freshman Liz Ordun who finished No. 30, and junior You-Shan Feng who managed to finish No. 32.
In the epee, Hopkins' highest finisher was junior Georgiana Lee. Lee earned a 16th place finish. Sophomore Caroline Grey finished close behind tied for 18th. Junior Phuong Tran finished at No. 43.
"Based on how we did this weekend, we expect to have a strong season." Said Giblin.
If this tournament was any indication of the team's potential to succeed this season then all signs point to a strong finish. The team will fence next on Dec. 7 in the National Intercollegiate Women's Fencing Association (NIWFA) Christmas Tournament to be held at Drew University in Madison, N.J.
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