Making it to the semifinals in a competition doesn't really mean too much. But for the women's fencing team, making it to semifinals was pretty impressive, especially when luck worked against them.
This past weekend, the team competed at the Fairleigh Dickinson Individual meet. Despite going against hard schools such as Temple and Tufts, freshman Erica Hartman placed ninth in saber, seniors Katherine Dunne and Cathy Gallagher placed 15th and 18th in 5fp5fe and freshman Grace Fried placed 15th in foil.
Due to luck of the draw, Dunne and Gallagher faced the top eight fencers very early on, which severely limited their chances.
"It was just bad luck that they wound up meeting the top eight fencers so early," said Head Coach Jim Murray. Other fencers were also hindered; junior Sarah Smilow was forced to compete with her left hand after an injury to her right.
Although Hopkins has been to this competition in the past, this year was different than the rest.
"The tournament was a lot smaller than other years, and it got strong a couple of rounds earlier than usual," said Murray. The Blue Jays, however, learned from their opponents.
"We were able to see the stronger teams such as Temple and Tufts," said Murray. "We've got to gear up for them." Temple consistently has one of the top teams in the league. Tufts has also been steadily improving, and the school will host the women's championships in February.
So far, the team has competed in three major tournaments and played over 13 teams. The most intensive part of the season, though, will be in February and March, when the championships begin to loom large.
The Fairleigh Dickinson tournament concludes the first half of the team's season. Before the second half officially starts after Intersession, the team will be undergoing serious training. Over Intersession, the team will be going to Holland to train at Holland's national training center for ten days. The head coach of Holland's national team, Rorik Jansen, will be assisting in the team's training.
In addition to training at the center, the Blue Jays will go around each night to play against different fencing squads. If the invitations the Jays have received are any indication, the Holland teams are excited to entertain the Hopkins women. Currently, the Blue Jays have more invitations then they have time.
"It's going to be exciting, and best of all, we'll be able to fence like crazy," said Murray. "It's great to be exposed to that level of competition."
The team won't spend all of their time fencing, however. They will be staying within an hour of Holland's biggest attraction, the city of Amsterdam.
Holland isn't generally thought of as a strong fencing country, though -- especially when compared to nearby France, Germany and Italy.
"Although it's a small country, they have tremendous experience from being able to compete with the other countries," said Murray. "This trip to Holland will really prepare us for the next semester. After going in January, we'll come back and we'll be ready to really fence at a college level."
As for men's fencing, the team is getting ready for the United States Fencing Association's North American Cup in Pittsburgh this weekend. Hopkins is sending four fencers to this meet.
This cup is one of the qualifiers for the United States National Fencing team. No Blue Jay fencer has ever been able to make it onto the team.
