A team that is more than 50 percent freshmen must be expecting change. And the Hopkins' men's fencing team is expecting just that. After winning first place in the Middle Atlantic Collegiate Fencing Association (MACFA) championships, the Blue Jays are out to challenge new teams such as University of North Carolina, University of California, San Diego and even Notre Dame.
Hopkins started this season with impressive results at the Temple Open. Freshman Daniel Zielinski placed the highest, taking eighth out of 75 players in 5fp5fe. In the saber, sophomore Aaron Fernandes placed 10th and senior Jason Park placed 11th out of 65 fencers. In foil, freshmen David Ferguson and James Einsielder placed 10th and 12th, respectively. The Temple Open was an individual meet, rather than the usual team meet.
These high results are only the beginning for the team.
"We have a lot of plans for improvement," said head coach Austin Young. "We have a lot of freshmen, and it's a young team, but hopefully we'll be able to beat some of the powerhouses out there."
The team has a lot to live up to this year. Last year, the team won their league's championship, and qualified two players for the NCAA Fencing Championships. Junior Nick Marchuk and Fernandes placed 24th in foil and saber, respectively, at the NCAA championships. Also, the team performed very well within their league. Six players were all named to the first and second all-conference fencing team at the end of last year. This year, however, the team is looking to qualify six players, or two players in each weapon, the maximum allowed at NCAAs.
The dynamics of the fencing team began to change three years ago when head coach Richard Oles left the team after 40 years. With the arrival of Young, the team began to recruit talented high school fencers.
"The team used to be recruited just from Hopkins," said team captain Marchuk. "Now people are recruited prior to coming here and they generally fenced in high school or nationals."
The team will be playing against several of the strongest fencing teams this weekend at the huge Northwestern Invitational. Almost half of this season's matches will played this weekend.
During the course of the meet, Hopkins will face several Division I teams. The Blue Jays are hoping to beat University of North Caroloina, UCSD and Notre Dame.
The last time that Hopkins played against UCSD, the Blue Jays lost 14-12. Hopkins has also played against and subsequently lost to UNC before.
"UNC has beaten us narrowly every time that we've played against them recently," said Young. "However, this year we have a stronger team, and we're hoping to break that record."
Notre Dame, the 2004-05 national champions, will likely be the Jays' most formidable opponent. The last two times that Hopkins played against Notre Dame, the Blue Jays lost 24-3 and18-9.
"It'll be pretty rough," said Young. "But, we're hoping to improve. We've definitely got a shot because they're not unbeatable."
While half the team is in Evanston, Ill. for the Northwestern tournament, the other half will be in New Jersey for a Centennial Conference meet at Stevens Institute of Technology.
There the team will be playing Stevens Institute of Technology, Army and Haverford, among other schools. Hopkins played most of these teams last year en route to winning their conference. Since the arrival of Young, the team has not lost to a Centennial foe. The Stevens meet, however, will be the first time that Hopkins will play against Army.
"Army is a hard school, and it'll be difficult with half of our team in Chicago," said Young.
Despite the difficulties, the team members feel confident in their team.
"Although this will be the first real meet for the freshmen, I feel that our performance at the meet this weekend will be very impressive," said Marchuk. The team heads to Evanston on Saturday and Hoboken, N.J. on Sunday.
