Going into their final competitions, the men's fencing team is looking strong.
Unfortunately, so is the rest of the field.
With a current record of 23 wins and 13 losses, the team heads into the Middle Atlantic Collegiate Fencing Association (MACFA) championships.
The team traditionally places well at MACFA. Last year they came in first place out of 14 teams. This year, however, MACFA will prove to be more challenging.
"We'll be playing against Drew and Haverford, both of whom managed to beat us unexpectedly earlier in the season," said junior captain Nick Marchuk.
This past weekend, the team faced Drew in the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) Invitational. It was a close match, with Drew edging the Jays 15-12.
"It was unexpected," said Marchuk. "It was also a very close game."
At the NJIT meet, the Blue Jays performed well against their other opponents. In their first game of the meet, Hopkins played against NJIT and managed to have a perfect 21-0 game. The team next played against Cornell, in what turned out to be a very close game.
The Blue Jays lost in both 8ep8ee and sabre, but due to help from sophomore Max Yusem, pulled off a large enough win in foil to still claim overall victory. The final game was played against Lafayette, with the Blue Jays winning 20-7, due to freshmen Geoff Chu and Matt Ferguson going 3-0 in the sabre bouts.
The weekend before, Hopkins also competed in the Duke Invitational. Their first game of the tournament occurred against Duke. In what proved to be another close game, the Jays lost in 8ep8ee and sabre but won 9-0 in foil to take the game. Against Cleveland State, the team stayed in the lead for the entire game, winning 19-8.
MIT proved to be very difficult, with Hopkins barely winning 14-13. As for the two losses of the tournament, Brandeis and North Carolina, Hopkins also had close games.
North Carolina went on to win all five meets in the tournament. Several members of the fencing team have also been competing in the Junior Olympics in Connecticut, including freshman Ben Dorfman.
The recent wins for the team have been the result of hard training.
"We had a very rigorous training over Intersession," said freshmen Matt Ferg. "Everyone's speed has improved, making our games much better."
Marchuk echoed Ferg's sentiments.
"We've had a lot of losses this year, but we've also managed to do a lot with a young team and scheduling conflicts," he said.
The Hopkins women's team faced its share of problems recently. Their most recent competition was at the Duke Invitational. There, they played against Brandeis, MIT, Temple, North Carolina and Duke.
Unfortunately, Hopkins suffered big losses to each of these teams. The first meet of the day was against Brandeis, who won 20 matches to the Blue Jays' seven. The winner of the Duke Invitational was Temple, who won all five of their games.
This weekend, the Jays will also compete in the National Intercollegiate Women's Fencing Association (NWFA) competition.
"Hopkins is traditionally among the top schools," said women's head coach Jim Murray. "We're really looking at the Army competition, as well as the championships. We have experienced fencers and five out of our nine fencers have helped us win the Army trophy in the past."
